Description
1. Forest Fire Simulation
The objective of this assignment is to write a program to simulate the growth and decline (due to
fires) of a forest over time. Here, the forest occupies an NxN checkboard-like two-dimensional
grid. Each cell in the checkerboard is in one of two states: occupied means the square is occupied
by a tree, and empty means the square contains no tree. Each cell, except those along the edges of
the grid, has 4 neighbors: one to the north, south, east, and west.
The simulation will operate in a time-stepped fashion where the simulation is initialized at time 0
to an empty (no trees) state, and the new state of the grid is computed for time 1, 2, 3, etc. Within
each time step the forest first goes through a growth phase where new trees are grown, followed
by a fire phase where trees burn down due to fires. Specifically, the state at each time step is
updated according to the following rules:
• Growth phase. If a cell is empty at time t, new growth will occur in the cell with
probability g, and the state of the cell becomes occupied; conversely, the cell will remain
empty with probability 1.0 – g. All cells of the grid are updated to account for this new
growth. Cells that already contain a tree remain in the same state (occupied).
• Fire phase. After the growth phase of this time step has been completed, fires may arise
due to lighting strikes. If a cell contains a tree a lightning strike occurs in that cell with
probability f causing the tree to catch fire; the state of the cell changes to empty. Further,
whenever a fire occurs in a cell it immediately spreads to its neighboring cells that also
contain a tree, and they too also become empty. This process continues, with the fire
spreading to the neighbors of those neighbors, and so on, until the fire finally burns itself
out due to a lack of additional occupied cells to which the fire can spread.
• After the state of all cells in the grid have been updated, advance to the next time step,
and repeat the above growth and fire phases for the new time step.
We are interested in the average size (i.e., number of trees) in the forest as g and f are varied. For
example, we might be interested in adjusting g by planting additional trees to help ensure the
forest maintains a certain size, i.e., tree population. Define P as the average number of occupied
cells at the end of each time step. Your simulation should compute the average value of P,
computed over the length of the simulation run, and output this result.
The model described above is referred to as a cellular automaton. Cellular automata are widely
used in the sciences, engineering, and social sciences to model a variety of different types of
systems and phenomena.
2. Assignment (CX 4010 and CSE 6010)
To complete this assignment, develop a simulation of the system described above using the C
programming language. Simulate a 100×100 grid. However, your program should be written so
that the grid size can be easily changed. Similarly, the growth parameter g and fire probability f
should be defined so they can be easily modified in your simulation. g and f remain the same
throughout the simulation run.
In order to check that your code is working properly, write a C function that prints the state of
the forest after each time step as well as any other information that you think will be useful to
convince us that your code works properly. Embed calls to the function in your code to illustrate
the operation of the simulator over a few time steps.
Once the simulation has been completed, complete a set of experiments with the goal of
understanding how the forest size P will vary as g and f are changed. Specifically, create a graph
with P on the vertical axis and g on the horizontal axis. Plot three curves with f equal to 0.01,
0.02, and 0.05.
Write up a brief report documenting your work and the results you obtained. This report should
include evidence your program works correctly, e.g., by including suitable output and
explanation.
Give a brief (a paragraph or two) explanation of the results computed by the simulation. In
particular, describe what is going on with the forest as g is varied. What affect, if any, does f
have? Be concise.
Turn your report and software in as a single zip file. Your software must be well documented and
include comments so the code is easy to understand. You should include a README file with
instructions on how to compile and run your program on the jinx cluster. Although this is not
really necessary due to the relatively simple nature of this program, you should get into the habit
of including such documentation with the software you develop.
Suggestion: The web is an excellent resource to answer specific questions on C. We encourage
you to use it, but be careful not to utilize code copied directly from the web.
3. CSE 6010 Students
In addition to the above, conduct a literature survey to determine what results you would expect
to obtain from this simulation model. Include citations to relevant literature as appropriate. Do
your results agree with other results reported in the literature? Explain why or why not. Are there
other applications where these results are relevant? While we are not expecting a fully
comprehensive literature search, you should aim for a page or two of text with perhaps four or
five related works cited.
4. CX 4010 Students (Extra Credit)
Complete the literature survey required for CSE 6010 students described above. If you complete
the extra credit, we will note this in your assignment grade. At the end of the semester, if you are
on the borderline between two letter grades, we will give you the higher grade if you have
completed extra credit tasks throughout the semester.
5. Reminder: Collaboration Policy
A reminder you must adhere to the Georgia Tech honor code, and the collaboration policy stated
in the course syllabus. Specifically, you are encouraged to discuss the problem and possible
solutions with other students (as well as the TA/instructor), however, all code that you turn in
must be completely your own work. Disseminating your code to other students is strictly
prohibited. Further, downloading code from the web or other sources other than examples
provided in class for use in this assignment is also prohibited.
CX 4010