Modeling wildfire dynamics using FLAM coupled with deep learning methods

We improve the accuracy of modeling burned areas using the FLAM model by identifying the hidden relationships between human and natural impacts on wildfire suppression efficiency using the deep learning-based methods. The wildfire climate impacts and adaptation model (FLAM) is able to capture impacts of climate, population, and fuel availability on burned areas. FLAM uses a process-based fire parameterization algorithm with a daily time step. The model uses daily temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and wind speed to assess climate impacts on ignition probability and fire spread. The key features implemented in FLAM include fuel moisture computation based on the Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC) of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI), and a procedure to calibrate spatial fire suppression efficiency. The coupled FLAM and deep learning approach consists in the following steps. First, using FLAM we calibrate the suppression efficiency map by comparing model output with observed burned area (satellite data). Secondly, we use deep learning methods to identify and assess the drivers behind the calibrated map. The features used in the analysis include several socio-economic factors, including accessibility, GPP, land use maps, as well as burned areas and other parameters modeled by FLAM. Our approach allows classifying those features by their importance and find correlations between them. Finally, we implement the output of deep learning network to estimate the spatial suppression efficiency within FLAM (instead of calibrating it), and validate the approach using observed burned area. The proposed approach is implemented using the Google Earth Engine platform that provides flexibility in terms of input data sets and visualization tools. We will present the case study for Indonesia at 0.083 arc degree spatial resolution. It is planned to consider climate change impacts in more detail. Modeling burned areas and suppression efficiency can help the implementation of fire prevention policies for decision maker and provide important information for building adequate and cost-efficient fire response infrastructure