Research opportunities in wildfire management from an Operations Management perspective

Abstract

Wildfires—also known as wildland fires, bushfires, and forest fires—are large-scale, uncontrolled fires that occur in vegetated areas, triggered by natural or human causes. They have significant economic, environmental, and social impacts. As with most disasters, the location, timing, and magnitude of wildfires are unpredictable. Wildfire management (WFM) has a long history in forestry research; however, it remains relatively underexplored by Operations Management (OM) researchers, partly due to the specialized knowledge required. We propose a macro-level framework to review the existing WFM literature and identify four key areas for future research: Risk Assessment, Fuel Treatment, Surveillance and Detection, and Initial Attack and Suppression. We also examine techniques for managing these functions and present cross-tabulations to map research coverage. This work enables OM researchers to identify research opportunities that align with their interests in WFM functions and their expertise in specific methodologies. We highlight research gaps and outline opportunities for empirical and analytical contributions, including predictive and prescriptive analytics. Practitioners will also benefit from discussing WFM functions to address real-world challenges.