FARSITE: A Fire Area Simulator for Fire Managers1

A fire growth model (FARSITE) has been developed for use on personal computers (PC’s). Because PC’s are commonly used by land and fire managers, this portable platform would be an accustomed means to bring fire growth modeling technology to management applications. The FARSITE model is intended for use in projecting the growth of prescribed natural fires for wilderness areas. The PC model requires the support of a geographic information system (GIS) to manage and provide landscape data. FARSITE currently uses a stream of weather and wind changes along with landscape data downloaded from the GIS to model fire growth. Computerized fire growth models have been the subject of research for about 20 years. Despite numerous management applications (Andrews 1989), these models still remain largely in the realm of research. Some obstacles to implementing a fire growth model for management purposes have been technological; different approaches to developing a realistic model for simulating wildland fire spread and behavior have different technical problems to overcome. Practical limitations have also created obstacles, mainly with the availability of computer hardware and software as well as landscape data. Until recently, computers and geographic information systems (GIS) with adequate spatial coverage of the themes necessary for running a fire growth model have not been widely available to potential users. Many of these difficulties are no longer limiting. Advances in computer technology and increasing prevalence of GIS no longer impede the transfer of fire growth modeling technology to user applications. Personal computers are now commonplace and a familiar tool for most managers. These computers are thus a logical platform for a fire growth model that can be easily accepted in an accustomed environment. This paper briefly describes an implementation of the FARSITE Fire Area Simulator designed for fire management uses on a personal computer.