Impact evaluation of the use of geospatial information for firefighting in Argentina

The World Conservation Organization (WWF), revealed in its 2020 report, that the number of fire alerts increased by 13% compared to the previous year, which had already been a record period for fires in South America and the world. Every year countless fires occur throughout Argentina, causing huge losses in different productive sectors and irreparable environmental damage in the short term. In Argentina, there is no operational fire simulation model based on spatial information, which allows improving management and thus reducing damages, ensuring the safety of fire fighters and protecting the ecosystem. This work proposes an evaluation of the socioeconomic benefit of the potential use of an operational simulator for fire management. In this way, by implementing an instrument that allows predicting fire behavior, we seek to increase the social profitability of the policies assigned to different jurisdictional levels in Argentina, allowing better management of prevention, monitoring and recovery of damages associated with future fires.