Spatial Decision Support Software

Integrated Modeling and Planning for Cost Effective Fuel Treatments

OptFuels integrates existing fire behavior (FlamMap), vegetation simulation (FVS-FFE), and land management planning (MAGIS) tools into one decision support system that supports long-term fuel management decisions.

OptFuels is designed to:

• Optimize spatial and temporal location of fuel treatments to maximize landscape-level fuel treatment effects over time
• Satisfy given budget and operational constraints
• Meet water quality goals

OptFuels program flow, demonstrating OptFuels' integrated system

Highlights of OptFuels

Multi-factor decision analysis

OptFuels helps land managers by supporting a simple management objective: minimize expected loss value across a landscape.

OptFuels accounts for several parameters:

• Temporal: FVS-FFE
• Spatial: GIS
• Constraints: budget, treatment zones, access
• Work with management units

...to give useful data for developing fuel treatment schedules that are both cost-efficient and practically feasible.

Heuristic Solver

OptFuels contains a Heuristic Solver which develops a number of alternative fuel treatment schedules (solutions), evaluates the cumulative effects of each alternative treatment schedule, and chooses the best fuel treatment schedule that produces maximum treatment effects (minimize overall expected loss) over time while meeting given resource and operational constraints. More on the Heuristic Solver here.

Example Heuristic Solver output, showing a comparison of fire travel times after various treatments