skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Goetz, Geoffrey"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Understanding the dynamics of fire propagation is essential in improving predictive models and developing effective fire management strategies. This study applies computer vision techniques to complement traditional fire behaviour modelling. We employ the Segment Anything Model to achieve the accurate segmentation of experimental fire videos, enabling the frame-by-frame segmentation of fire perimeters, quantification of the rate of spread in multiple directions, and explicit analysis of slope effects. Our laboratory experiments reveal that the ROS increases exponentially with slope, but with coefficients differing from those prescribed in the Canadian Fire Behaviour Prediction System, reflecting differences in field conditions. Complementary field data from prescribed burns in coniferous fuels (C-7) further demonstrate that slope effects vary under operational conditions, suggesting field-dependent dynamics not fully captured by existing deterministic models. Our experiments show that, even under controlled laboratory conditions, substantial variability in spread rate is observed, underscoring the inherent stochasticity of fire spread. Together, these findings highlight the value of vision-based perimeter extraction in generating precise spread data and reinforce the need for probabilistic modelling approaches that explicitly account for uncertainty and emergent dynamics in fire behaviour. 
    more » « less
    Free, publicly-accessible full text available October 1, 2026