Relieving the Effects of Uncertainty in Forest Fire Spread Prediction by Hybrid MPI-OpenMP Parallel Strategies

The accurate prediction of forest fire propagation is a crucial issue to minimize its effects. Several models have been developed to determine the forest fire propagation. Simulators implementing such models require diverse input parameters to deliver predictions about fire propagation. However, the data describing the actual scenario where the fire is taking place are usually subject to high levels of uncertainty. The input-data uncertainty represents a serious drawback for the correctness of the prediction. So, a two-stage methodology was developed to calibrate the input parameters in an adjustment stage so that the calibrated parameters are used in the prediction stage to improve the quality of the predictions. This way, we relieve the effects of such uncertainty. In this work, we take advantage of this two stage methodology applying Genetic Algorithms as the calibration technique. However, the use of Genetic Algorithms require the execution of many simulations. This fact, added to the eventual long executions of the underlying simulator (due to its inherent complexity), implies to deal with another serious problem: The time needed to deliver the predictions. To be useful, the prediction must be provided much faster than real time. So, it is necessary to exploit all available computing resources. In this work, we present a two-stage forest fire spread prediction hybrid MPI-OpenMP application based on the Master- Worker paradigm and the parallelization of the FARSITE simulator in order to minimize the response time. The results as regards the enhancement in the quality of the predictions are reported, as well as the results regarding the time saving obtained by this hybrid application. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.