Team Number: Team 068
School Name: Silver High School
Area of Science: Forestry
Project Title:
Project Definition:
Wildfires have been devastating the western part of United States
over the past several summers. Some places that have burned are: Show
Low, Arizona, Durango, Colorado, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. A wildfire
is a sweeping and destructive conflagration especially in wilderness and
rural areas. This program is constructed to evaluate the effect wildfires
burning in woodland areas; these are commonly referred to as forest fires.
The program takes the fuel model(fuel type and density), slope of terrain,
wind speed, and climate(such as temperature and rain fall) to produce a
prediction on how the fire will behave, the spread rate, the total amount
of the burnt area, and the size of the flame.
Project Solution:
An equation is being formulated which calculates different
variables(fuel characteristics, weather, and terrain) to develop
an accurate prediction in relations to the fire. Using information from
the local weather stations, the USDA Forest Service office, and other
community facilities (Department of Fish and Game Services, local rancher,
ect.) are used to develop the equation in C to calculate the behavior of the forest fire in the given area.
Progress to Date:
Data has been collected from Internet sources and the USDA Forest
Service office. Information such as weather and forest conditions has
also be collected along with results from previous prescribed fires. The
programming language C is being used to create the
program calculations. The fireLib is being used as library for
construction. The Behave users manual is being used as a referance for
formulas.
Team Members
Sponsoring Teacher(s)
Project Mentor(s)