Basing Airtankers for Forest Fire Control in Ontario

Abstract

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) operates a fleet of nine CL-215 airtankers for forest fire control. The aircraft are based at a small number of airports that serve as home bases, from which they are deployed to a larger set of airports that serve as initial attack bases for fire fighting operations each day. We helped regional fire managers derive subjective airtanker deployment rules that specified how many airtankers were to be deployed at each initial attack base each day. We then developed a mathematical programming model that was used to help identify a home-basing strategy that would minimize the average annual cost of satisfying daily airtanker deployment demands. Our analysis provided OMNR decision makers with valuable insight into airtanker management and was used to help decide where to base the OMNR airtankers for the 1993 and subsequent fire seasons.

A Review of Recent Forest and Wildland Fire Management Decision Support Systems Research

“…Greulich (1976) [34] exploited the Markovian properties of day to day changes in fire danger rating indices to develop a mixed integer linear programming model that addressed both annual home-basing and the daily transfer of airtankers from base to base in California. More recently, MacLellan and Martell (1996) [35] developed a linear programming model that was used to help determine where to home base a known number of airtankers and how they could be re-deployed from base to base each day based on simple assumptions concerning how many airtankers would be required to be deployed on alert at each airtanker base each day.…”

Applications of Location Analysis

“…MacLellan and Martell (1996), Islam and Martell (1998) and Islam et al (2009) study how the location of bases for forest fire airtankers, the allocation of the airtankers to these bases and the strategy of deployment of the airtankers to the fire locations affects both cost and effectiveness of the fire suppression effort. MacLellan and Martell (1996), Islam and Martell (1998) and Islam et al (2009) study how the location of bases for forest fire airtankers, the allocation of the airtankers to these bases and the strategy of deployment of the airtankers to the fire locations affects both cost and effectiveness of the fire suppression effort.…”

An Introduction to Industrial Forestry from a Location Perspective

“…MacLellan and Martell (1996), Islam and Martell (1998) and Islam et al (2009) study how the location of bases for forest fire airtankers, the allocation of the airtankers to these bases and the strategy of deployment of the airtankers to the fire locations affects both cost and effectiveness of the fire suppression effort.…”