Title: On the application of multi-objective harmony search heuristics to the predictive deployment of firefighting aircrafts: a realistic case study

Authors: Miren Nekane Bilbao; Javier Del Ser; Sancho Salcedo-Sanz; Carlos Casanova-Mateo

Addresses: Department of Communications Engineering, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, 48013 Bilbao, Spain ' OPTIMA Area, TECNALIA, E-48160 Zamudio, Spain ' Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Spain ' Department of Energy and Water Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Abstract: This manuscript focuses on the increasing frequency and scales of worldwide wildfires and the need for enhancing the effectiveness of firefighting resources. The scope is focused on optimally deploying firefighting aircrafts on aerodromes and airports existing over an area based on fire risk predictions. This scenario is formulated as a capacity-constrained multi-objective optimisation problem where the utility of the deployed resources with respect to fire forest risk predictions is to be maximised, and expenditures associated with the reallocation of aircrafts must be minimised. This formulation is further complemented by including the impact of the distance from the wildfire to water sources in the firefighting utility function. To efficiently tackle this problem a multi-objective harmony search solver is designed and tested in synthetically generated and real scenarios for the Iberian Peninsula. The results obtained pave the way towards the utilisation of this tool by decision makers when outlining their firefighting logistics.

Keywords: firefighting resources; forest fires; forest weather index; FWI; harmony search; wildfires; firefighting aircraft; fire risk prediction; fire risk assessment; multi-objective optimisation; capacity-constrained optimisation; resource deployment; case study; water sources; firefighting logistics; Iberian Peninsula.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIC.2015.072257

International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation, 2015 Vol.7 No.5, pp.270 - 284

Received: 03 Apr 2014
Accepted: 05 Jul 2014
Published online: 07 Oct 2015 *

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