Modeling wildfire propagation with Delaunay triangulation and shortest path algorithms

In this paper, a methodology for modeling surface wildfire propagation through a complex landscape is presented. The methodology utilizes a Delaunay triangulation to represent surface fire spread within the landscape. A procedure to construct the graph and estimate the rate of spread along the edges of a network is discussed. After the Delaunay data structure is constructed, a two pass shortest path algorithm is incorporated to estimate the minimum travel time paths and fire arrival times. Experimental results are also included.

► We model surface fire spread over a complex landscape to assess fire arrival times. ► Method is proposed to capture the essential properties of complex landscape as a network. ► We introduced a polynomial time algorithm to assess fire time arrivals. ► The algorithm bases on Delaunay triangulation and two pass shortest path algorithm. ► It uses two passes re-meshing the graph to assess fire arrival times accurately.