Professor Emeritus
BASc, MASc, PhD (Toronto)
Phone: 416-978-6960
Fax: 416-978-3834
david.martell@utoronto.ca
Research
I completed my B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc., and Ph.D. in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto where I studied Management Science and Operational Research (MS/OR) and their application to forest fire management. My current research interests include the application of operational research and information technology to fire and forest management and the development of decision support systems for fire and forest managers. I, along with Mike Wotton, am a co-leader of the Fire Managements Systems Laboratory in the Faculty of Forestry.
My long term research objectives are to 1) further our understanding of fire and forest management under uncertainty and 2) to develop decision support systems (DSS) that can be used by fire and forest managers. My graduate students, research assistants and I are currently focussing our efforts on furthering our understanding of detection, initial attack and large fire management processes and 2) developing DSS that fire managers can use to enhance their detection, initial attack and large fire management operations.