An Indicator for Assessing the Effectiveness of Organizing Forest Fire Protection

The article briefly analyzes the main indicators used to assess the effectiveness of the organization of forest fire protection in the Russian Federation. The need to improve approaches to such an assessment has been substantiated. Based on the expert analysis of various situations and existing operational indicators of aviation forest protection units and regional dispatching services, it can be concluded that all possible factors that affect the effectiveness of work should be divided into two groups: organizational and weather-related. At the same time, all organizational factors ultimately affect the area covered by the fire. Weather factors cannot be controlled, and their influence must be excluded when calculating performance indicators. Thus, all indicators that characterize the weather factor are directly or indirectly related. The article proves the expediency of using the indicator of fire season intensity to account for weather factors. It is proposed to calculate the relative deviation of the values of forest fire frequency and intensity from the average long-term values for assessing the effectiveness. The article provides a formula, an algorithm, and a number of recommendations for automating the calculation. A verbal-numerical scale of conditional assessment of the effectiveness of forest firefighting units is proposed. The interpretation of the values of the conditional indicator of the effectiveness of forest firefighting units for the selected scale is given. On the basis of the proposed method, an analysis of the effectiveness assessment of organizing forest fire protection in 2019 for all constituent entities of the Russian Federation is carried out. In the framework of the existing accounting system of forest fires, the cost of their suppression, as well as the features of existing system of account of funding of activities related to the protection of forests from fires, the proposed approach is optimal for assessing the forest fire service as it considers previous work experience in a variety of weather conditions. The proposed approach can be used in systems to support management decisions in the field of forest fire protection, which will significantly increase the adequacy of management decisions in the forest sector.

АНАЛИЗ ОСОБЕННОСТЕЙ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ СПОСОБОВ БОРЬБЫ С ПОЖАРАМИ

This article examines the problems that arise in the field of fire fighting. The most significant issues of forest fire protection are analyzed, and methods are developed to stabilize the identified problems.

Сonceptual bases of the organization of forest fire protection

The analysis of the Concept of the draft Federal Law “Forest Code of the Russian Federation” proposed for discussion has shown that it is necessary to consider in detail the problems of organizing forest fire protection. In our opinion, the provisions of clause 3.7.7. The concepts require discussion of two important aspects of this activity. The first aspect concerns the implementation of forest fire protection in the territories provided for forestry on the basis of a license agreement and an agreement on the trust management of protective forests to legal entities and individuals. The second is the definition of the basic principles and criteria, based on which, the forests will be classified according to the methods of monitoring fire hazard and the use of fire extinguishing forces and means. The need to discuss the issue of consolidating the function of forest protection from fires for state specialized organizations of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the federal body responsible for the general management of the forest protection system is revealed. The study showed that with the modern organization of fire detection and extinguishing, the approach to zoning and methodological support for making a decision on the advisability of carrying out fire extinguishing work in hard-to-reach forests requires a more thorough justification. At the same time, the development of a methodology should proceed from the zoning goal to reduce damage from fires. When calculating, it is important to take into account not only economic losses, but also negative consequences in the social sphere and in the environmental situation.

Potential forest fire risk evaluation in Poland

The term forest fire risk means the existence of such conditions that would make possible the occurrence of a fire in the forest environment. The base for the effectiveness of a forest fire protection system is the evaluation of the forest fire risk followed by adequate organization of the system. This article presents methods for determination of the forest susceptibility to fire known as potential forest fire risk. The below presented methods were developed by Forest Research Institute as the results of the projects commissioned by the General Directorate of State Forests. The forest fire risk category and stand flammability classes are the methods included here. The forest fire risk category was elaborated already in 1975 for the first time. Until today, after the last modification in 2008, it is the fundamental document for the polish forest fire protection system. The purpose of this modification was to increase the determination accuracy of the fire risk category of all polish forest, regardless of its ownership type and at the different administrative level. The categorization method, however, doesn’t reflect the fire risk in micro scale. The attempt to solve that problem was made in 2018 while developing the methodology of stand flammability classes. It was assumed that ground cover fuel models will be developed for the most flammable forest habitat types including ground cover types, dominant species, age class and geographical localisation.

Legal regulation of forest fire protection: the European experience for Ukraine

Problem setting. The article analyzes the status of the main normative legal acts in force, both domestic and international legislation. Some aspects of the legal regulation of forest fire protection are revealed. It is noted that Improvement of the forestry regulatory framework is a key and essential aspect for the development of an advanced state. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Commitment to reforestation after logging, sanitary felling after forest fires, diseases or as a result of winds and sailboats is a sustainable practice in European societies and an important aspect in the relationship between forest owners and society. At one time, this issue was paid attention to scientists: E.M. Gulid, O.V. Gulak, V.V. Deca, D.S. Chris, O.I. Lozynsky and so on. Target of research. The purpose of the article is to analyze the aspects of legal regulation of forest protection against fires. Special attention will be paid to comparative legal research on forest protection in Ukraine and European countries. Article’s main body. According to Art. 13 of the Constitution of Ukraine forest, like other natural resources of Ukraine (land, water, subsoil), is a national property that is the object of property rights of the Ukrainian people. Currently, the total land area of the forest fund of Ukraine is 10.8 million hectares, of which 9.5 million hectares is covered with forest vegetation, that is 15.7% of the territory of our country. According to V.P. Pechulyuk, legal regulation in the field of forestry in Ukraine cannot be called optimal and in line with international standards. In this context, scientists should agree that the important step in ensuring the fire safety of domestic forests is the full functioning of such monitoring system at the central, regional, local and local levels, its appropriate informational implementation, taking into account the specific features of individual regions regarding the level of fire safety. Forests at one time or another and the coordination and interaction of joint efforts by designated authorities, local governments and the public to minimize fire safety or mitigation. In view of the above, international instruments covering aspects of cooperation in the field of forest fires are few international agreements and acts of the European Community. Such as: 1. Ghana / Province of British Columbia (Canada). Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the Government of British Columbia, 1999 (On fire fighting training and advice). 2. Finland / Burkina Faso. Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Finland and the Government of Burkina Faso on Finland’s support in the fight against landscape fires, 1998 3. Indonesia and Malaysia. Standard Procedures for a Memorandum of Understanding on Disasters between Indonesia and Malaysia. This is the document that sets out the procedure for implementing the Memorandum of Understanding and so on. Conclusions and prospects for the development. Therefore, based on the above, on the basis of international regulations, the FAO’s recommendations regarding future actions on the legal aspects of forest fires management in Ukraine should be taken into account: regularly update information on international agreements and national legislation; further develop a plan for the development of international agreements and develop new contours of relevant operational guidelines and operational plans; including fire logistics; further review and evaluation of national forest fire legislation; to develop guidelines for the formulation of national legislation on forest fires.

Factors influencing fire suppression success in the province of Quebec (Canada)

In the managed forest of Canada, forest fires are actively suppressed through efficient initial attack capability; however, the impact of different factors on the suppression success remains to be understood. The aim of this paper was to analyze the influence of operational suppression objectives (fire detection, initial attack, and fire control) along with fire intensity, fuel type, fire ignition cause, year, workload, and homogeneous fire regime zones on the achievement of the fire suppression objective (fire < 3 ha) using the Forest Fire Protection Agency of Quebec (SOPFEU) as a case study. The overall success of the suppression objective was very high (88%) over the study period (1994–2015). Both detection and control had significant effects on the suppression success through their interaction with fuel type, ignition cause, fire intensity, and zone variables. When the suppression objective was not achieved, final fire size was influenced by control, fuel type, fire intensity, and zone. The paper highlights the importance of the operational objectives and of regional differences for both fire suppression success and final fire size. Our results can help forest fire protection agencies to better understand their wildland fire suppression systems for a better adaptation to the upcoming fire regime changes.