Prometheus version 5.1.8 (Release date: May 26, 2008) includes on-line help. A stand alone and integrated tutorial is being completed and will be included in later versions of the model. The on-line help has also been incorporated in the Prometheus User Manual. The Prometheus User Manual released in May 2008 (version 5.1) is divided into 11 Sections and 10 Appendices:

Section 1      Introduction
Section 2      Software Installation & Help
Section 3      Data Preparation and Input
Section 4      Views
Section 5      Application Settings & Options
Section 6      Spatial Data
Section 7      Weather Data
Section 8      Fire Ignitions
Section 9      Fuel Modeling
Section 10    Creating Scenarios
Section 11    Simulating Scenarios
Appendix 1   Suggested Reading
Appendix 2   History
Appendix 3   Technical Concepts
Appendix 4   FBP Fuel Type Lookup Table
Appendix 5   Working with Color Tables
Appendix 6   Diurnal Wind and Temperature Parameters
Appendix 7   Hourly Weather Stream File
Appendix 8   Dogrib Test Data Sets
Appendix 9   Modelling the Dogrib Fire
Appendix 10   Prometheus Error Report

The User Manual contains useful tips and suggestions. You can download this document from the Public Download section.

The proposal for the "Development and Application of a Wildland Fire Growth Model" was submitted to the Foothills Model Forest in April 1999. With conditional funding in place, software engineers began designing and engineering Prometheus - the Canadian Wildland Fire Growth Model, in February 2000. The proposal identified the need to establish an integrated, mutli-disciplinary team to create a state-of-the-art wildland fire growth model over a two-year period by utilizing and enhancing key features from a number of existing models. The foundation of the model is the Canadian Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction (FBP) System, and the wave propagation algorithms developed by Dr. Gwynfor Richards at Brandon University. One of the objectives of the proposal is to ensure that the model functions as a stand-alone, spatially explicit wave propagation fire growth model that can be easily used and integrated with other applications. As a result, considerable time and effort were spent to ensure that the program can be used across Canada, by not only fire management agencies, but also other interested stakeholders, such as landscape modelers, university researchers, forest management planners, municipal planners and educators. The model is therefore open and flexible.

The Project Steering Committee stressed in the beginning, the importance of developing a highly interactive graphical user interface, and providing users with extensive flexibility to customize and modify input parameters and output formats.

It was envisioned that the model would have numerous operational and strategic applications. The proposal identified the following potential applications:

1. Operational Use - Deterministic Model Runs
2. Strategic Planning - Deterministic Model Runs
   Evaluating the Threat of Wildfire to Key Values-at-Risk
3. Strategic Planning - Deterministic Model Runs
   Evaluating Strategies to FireSmart Landscapes
4. Strategic Planning - Probabilistic Model Runs
   Evaluate Burn Probabilities across the Landscape
5. Strategic Planning - Probabilistic Model Runs
   Evaluate the Function of Fire as a Landscape Disturbance Process

A 32 hour Prometheus training course was held at the Hinton Training Centre, in Hinton, Alberta from April 16 – 20, 2007. This course has been submitted to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) National Training Working Group (NTWG) for endorsement from CIFFC.

A Prometheus refresher training course for Version 5.1.0 was held April 15 - 16, 2008 at the Hinton Training Centre, in Hinton, Alberta. This 2 day course was intended for users who already took the Prometheus course but wanted to familiarize themselves with the new features and functionality of Version 5.1.0.

Development of the Prometheus model is continuing with the goal of incorporating further functionality. A user needs assessment survey was distributed to users across Canada in January 2006 to obtain feedback on what new functionalities should be considered for future development. This survey identified the need to incorporate spatial weather modeling. This functionality will therefore be included in the next release.

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