The state of development of fire management decision support systems in America and Europe

Forest fires affect millions of people worldwide, and cause major ecosystem and economic impacts at different scales. The management policies implemented to minimize the negative impacts of forest fires require substantial investment of financial, human and organizational resources, which must be justifiable and efficient. Decision support systems based on economic models can help to optimize the allocation of limited resources. This paper exposes the development of the economic theory for the efficiency analysis of fire management measures. Then, it provides a review of four fire management decision support systems applied in America and Europe, investigating their degree of performance according to the theoretical foundations of the efficiency analysis.

► Increasing investments for fire management programs
► Economic efficiency evaluation of fire management programs with decision support systems
► Long fire economic tradition in the USA, while less developed in Europe