An Innovative Conceptual Model of a Forest Fire Management Information and Decision-Support System for Brandenburg State, Germany Abstract Research and development conducted within the Forest Fire Cluster of the German Research Network

Research and development conducted within the Forest Fire Cluster of the German Research Network on Natural Disasters is built on a number of separately evolved concepts that were integrated in a cooperative research project. The Forest Fire Cluster has the responsibility of three major components. The first component consists of an innovative conceptual model for a fire information system and decision-support for early warning, monitoring, information management and simulation of wildfires in pine forests of Brandenburg State, Germany. The second component provides the link between the locally applicable system and a global fire information system provided by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). The third component includes modelling of historic occurrence and future trends of fire occurrence due to regional climate change and is implemented by an associated project of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and it is published separately. The first component is composed by a number of different modules. Firstly, it includes the adaptation of established fire behavior simulations models (BEHAVE, FARSITE) implemented by the Fire Ecology Research Group. For the first time a fire behavior model has been applied for the specific conditions of pine forests in the eastern, continental part of Germany, including the interspersed heathlands that constitute an important carrier of a wildfire at landscape level. The characteristics of these forests are quite typical for temperate-hemiboreal pine forests of Eurasia. Secondly, it includes a fire detection component (Automated Fire Detection System AWFS) implemented by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The development of the AWFS meets the requirements for fast, cost-effective and reliable fire detection system. And thirdly, it includes a fire danger rating and forecast system implemented by the (German Meteorological Service DWD). The national fire-danger rating system has consolidated during the project lifetime. During the research project the work of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) constituted the link from national to international levels. The value added by the research project is a mutual support of individual research projects and their final merging into a comprehensive decision-support tool for fire management. Insight gained by the research project concerning the operational use of satellite remote sensing information in the management of active wildland fires will be useful for the development of urgently needed operational spaceborne fire systems.