The Economics of Wildland Firefighting Aviation Procurement and Effectiveness

We examine two economic aspects of aviation used for wildland firefighting in the United States. First, we analyze the procurement of aviation resources by federal agencies, and how the structure of contracts influences suppression costs. Second, we highlight the lack of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of aviation and provide a research design to quantify effectiveness and the benefits of aviation use. Our analysis can inform tactical operations on individual wildfire incidents and help federal agencies develop season-long resource utilization strategies.

我们探讨了美国用于野外火灾扑救的航空作业的两个经济维度。首先，我们分析联邦机构对航空资源的采购模式，以及合同结构如何影响扑救成本。其次，我们强调航空作业有效性方面实证证据的缺失，并提出一套研究设计以量化其有效性及使用航空资源的效益。我们的分析可为单个野外火灾事件的战术行动提供参考，并助力联邦机构制定全季节资源利用策略。