Wildfire and Forest Management: Opportunities for HCI Research

Wildfire and forest management increasingly relies on geospatial technologies, i.e., data and tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth, to inform measures for the control of wildfires. Nevertheless, challenges arising from domain experts adopting these complex, non-intuitive technologies are not well understood. We interviewed 12 participants in wildfire and forest management to explore the technical and socio-technical nature of these challenges, revealing that (1) knowledge and data are fragmented across stakeholders, ranging from governmental agencies to small landowners. This fragmentation causes participants to (2) struggle in sharing knowledge and expertise. Participants (3) voice concerns about model bias since decisions informed by geospatial technologies can have far-reaching impacts. Yet, they (4) face barriers engaging people most impacted by these decisions. We detail an HCI research agenda that includes: exploring opportunities to connect stakeholders and sharing knowledge, standardizing decision making, and engaging local communities.