Filling the dialog

The simulator dialog is divided in four main sections: Landscape, ignitions, weather and outputs. And two optional: run-configuration and advanced options. Altough intuitive (e.g. match each dimensional unit shown in square brackets), each section is commented below:

Landscape

The surface fuel model must match the fuel raster codification (see lookup tables)
The style fuel raster checkbox not only “paints” using ‘native:setlayerstyle’ algorithm according to each qml layer style, but also show the classification on the Layers panel
Enabling crown fire behavior makes sense even without canopy rasters because there are fixed standard numbers for them according to the fuel codification (Only available in Canada’s fuel model)

Ignitions

When simulating one or few simulations, a detailed output is relevant (like propagation digraph and propagation scars)
When simulating hundreds or thousands, mean and std.dev. statistics are more important than detailed output that can choke the computer unnecessarily (use final scar instead of propagation scars; propagation digraph is input for DPV and Centrality measures; but it can’t be loaded into view!)
There are 3 ways to generate ignitions:
0. Draw a uniformly distributed random but burnable pixel
1. Draw using a probability map raster
2. Specify a point and optionally a radius to specify a circle from where uniformly draw
If passing various points in the “single point layer”, only the last[?] will be taken into consideration (see feature id (fid) in layer attribute table)
Note that afterwards there’s a random seed input, hence same seed implies drawing the same point(s sequence)

Weather

The simulator assumes constant weather parameters across the grid, they can change over time, but not space
These parameters are passed into the simulator using a .csv file
In a regular simulation each row lasts 1 hour, when the rows end, the simulation ends
There are two options:
0. Using just one Weather.csv
1. Drawing at random from a directory Weathers/WeatherN.csv : N = 1,2,... correlatively named
WIP: A weather database; meanwhile weathers can be obtained from weather.org from any location from 1970 until present day

back to weather spec. | top

Run Configuration

Run configuration

Only lower the simulation cpu threads if you plan to keep working on something else while the simulations run in the background (for office or web-browsing you’ll never need more than 2)
Keeping track of the seed yields reproducibility for all generated random numbers

Outputs

This section has three main parts: options, advanced and destination directories. Outputs

Options

Access the multiple selection by clicking the ... on the right
Most outputs adapt according to being 1 or >1 simulations
When simulating one or few simulations, a detailed output is relevant (like propagation digraph and propagation scars)
When simulating hundreds or thousands, mean and std.dev. statistics are more important than detailed output that can choke the computer unnecessarily (use final scar instead of propagation scars; propagation digraph is input for DPV and Centrality measures; but it can’t be loaded into view!)

output name	unit-type	description
Propagation Fire Scars	polygons	animate adding the column `=now()+ make_interval(hours:=time)`
Propagation Directed Graph	vector lines `periods`	edges labeled with simulation event time `min`
Ignition Points	points	pixel id
Hit Rate Of Spread	raster float32 `m/min`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std
Final Fire Scars	raster `0,1`
Surface Flame Length	raster float32 `m`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std
Byram Fireline Intensity	raster float32 `kW/m`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std
Crown Fire Scar	raster `0,1`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std
Crown Fire Fuel Consumption Ratio raster	`0,1`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std
Surface Burn Fraction	`0,1`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std (only Canada FBP)
Crown Intensity	raster `kW/m`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std (only Spain S&B)
Crown Flame Length	raster `m`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std (only Spain S&B)
Max Flame Length	raster `m`	multiband x simulation and bi-band mean&std (only Spain S&B)

Advanced options

Un/Fold the block using the triangle
at the left of Advanced Parameters
Any~~thing~~ command line parameters can be appended, refer to: Technical documentation, the code Cell2Fire.ReadArgs.cpp or this pull request for documentation
Dry run prepares the instance and the command line leaving the execution up to the user. Is a way to gain resources (close QGIS, open a terminal), verify or modify the instance before running

Destination directories:

The (Cell2)Fire Simulator defines input & outputs (instance & results) directories, reducing complexity by always naming files the same; Fire2a-toolbox takes care of builds these directories and writing files with the proper names [and formats… coming soon].
tmp means no worries: By default QGIS processing algorithms are ran in memory and/or written to temporary directories; upside always start from a clean slate and OS assited cleaning up, avoid cloud drives messing up; but the downside is being a bit cumbersome to reach those temporary locations. The “Save All” plugin automatically encodes and save all currently loaded layers wherever you choose, use it after loading the results, and never worry about specifying directories.
There are 3 -mutually exclusive- strategies specifying where to build instance & results directories:

Temporary: Don’t fill anything, recommended! (default empty)
Manually: specify them: by absolute path o relative to user’s home[?]
Instance along project: A directory named firesim_YYMMDD_HHMMSS will be created; the project must be saved [in a location without spaces in its path]
Results inside Instance: A directory named results will be created inside Instance (default)