The production structure of the lumber manufacturing sector in western Washington was investigated using a translog cost function with capital, labor, and sawlog inputs. Analyses were performed with a panel data set of biennial observations from 1972 to 2002 on a cross section of sixteen western...

The protection of private residences from wildland fire produces high levels of cost and safety risk to firefighters, especially with the expanding ex-urban settlement pattern in the wildland urban interface (WUI). Economic information on probable structure losses can help guide efficient...

This paper presents modeling methods for mapping fire hazard and fire risk using a research model called FIREHARM (FIRE Hazard and Risk Model) that computes common measures of fire behavior, fire danger, and fire effects to spatially portray fire hazard over space. FIREHARM can compute a measure...

Five National Fire Danger Rating System indices (including the Ignition Component, Energy Release Component, Burning Index, Spread Component, and the Keetch-Byram Drought Index) and the Fosberg Fire Weather Index are used to characterise US fire danger. These fire danger indices and input...

Key factors driving renewable energy demand are state and federal policies requiring the use of renewable feedstocks to produce energy (renewable portfolio standards) and liquid fuels (renewable fuel standards). However, over the next decade, the infrastructure for renewable energy supplies is...

The economic costs of adverse health effects associated with exposure to wildfire smoke should be given serious consideration in determining the optimal wildfire management policy. Unfortunately, the literature in this research area is thin. In an effort to better understand the nature of these...

Historically, in Spain and most European countries, forest fire budgets have never been subjected to an objective and rigorous economic analysis indicative of the returns on investments in fire management protection programs. Thus far we have witnessed expansive growth of costs without any...

Models to predict dbh from stump dimensions are presented for 18 species groups. Data used to fit the models were collected across thirteen states in the northeastern United States. Primarily because of the presence of multiple measurements from each tree, a mixed-effects modeling approach was...

Wildfire prevention education efforts involve a variety of methods, including airing public service announcements, distributing brochures, and making presentations, which are intended to reduce the occurrence of certain kinds of wildfires. A Poisson model of preventable Florida wildfires from...

Current estimators of variance for the k nearest neighbours (kNN) technique are designed for estimates of population totals. Their efficiency in small-area estimation problems can be poor. In this study, we propose a modified balanced repeated replication estimator of variance (BRR) of a kNN...