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Canadian Forest Service - National Site

Research

Working Together Towards Solutions: Get Involved, Get Results ... Down Mexico Way

After its worst-ever forest fire season, Mexico knew it needed a national, automated fire information system. It also knew who had the expertise to help develop it – the Canadian Forest Service.


Wildland Fire Information Systems

The Canadian Forest Service (CFS) has long been known as a world leader in developing wildland fire information systems. Components of the CFS-developed Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System have already been adapted to Alaska, New Zealand, Florida, and the ASEAN countries (Association of South East Asian Nations). A set of customizable components makes Canada's Spatial Fire Management System the only one in the world capable of being adapted to any scale, from local to global.

Following its disastrous 1998 forest fire season, Mexican authorities asked the CFS to develop jointly a national automated fire information system for them, patterned after the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS).

The Program

In response to the request, the CFS developed a prototype system for Mexico. The system uses global communications technology to access Mexican weather data which are transformed into fire-danger maps. These, in turn, are distributed through the internet.

As the system was developed for Mexico, Canada received a reciprocal benefit. Because the CFS scientists had to develop new approaches for modelling weather in complex terrain, they took those refinements and implemented them into the Canadian system, enhancing its capability.

Working with Mexico, the CFS plans to develop the technology further for that country while continuing to look for other opportunities to adapt and develop the innovative Canadian system.

CFS S&T Network Partners:

  • SEMARNAP (Mexico Department of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries)

For more information, please contact:

Bryan Lee
Research Scientist

Canadian Forest Service
Northern Forestry Centre
5320-122 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
T6H 3S5

Telephone: (780) 435-7303
Fax: (780) 435-7386
e-mail: blee@nrcan.gc.ca

or the CFS centre nearest you.

 

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Last updated: 2004-01-05 Top Important Notices