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Melanie Wheatley

PhD

Melanie Wheatley is a Wildland Fire Research Scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Aviation Forest Fire and Emergency Services. Dr. Wheatley completed her PhD in 2024 under the supervision of Dr. Mike Wotton, where her research focused on evaluating aerial suppression effectiveness using a combination of historical fire archive data, airtanker mission data, and field-based experimental burning to examine the effect of the application of water on fire behaviour. Dr. Wheatley’s current research focuses on aerial suppression effectiveness and the development of decision support tools to support operational fire management. 

Recent Publications

  • Wheatley, M., Cotton-Gagnon, A., Boucher, J., Wotton, B. M., McFayden, C. B., Jurko, N., & Robinson, J. (2023). Exploring the impact of airtanker drops on in-stand temperature and relative humidity. International journal of wildland fire, 32(8), 1269-1276. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22218
  • Wheatley, M., Wotton, B. M., Woolford, D. G., Martell, D. L., & Johnston, J. M. (2022). Modelling decisions concerning the dispatch of airtankers for initial attack on forest fires in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2022-0225
  • Wheatley, M., Wotton, B. M., Woolford, D. G., Martell, D. L. & Johnston, J. M. (2022). Modelling initial attack success on forest fires suppressed by air attack in the province of Ontario, Canada. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 31(8), 774-785. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22006
  • Boychuk, D., McFayden, C. B., Woolford, D. G., Wotton, M., Stacey, A., Evens, J., Hanes, C. C. & Wheatley, M. (2021). Considerations for categorizing and visualizing numerical information: a case study of fire occurrence prediction models in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Fire, 4(3), 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030050
  • Dufour, D., Le Noc, L., Tremblay, B., Tremblay, M. N., Généreux, F., Terroux, M., Vachon C., Wheatley, M.J., Johnston, J.M, Wotton, M. & Topart, P. (2021). A bi-spectral microbolometer sensor for wildfire measurement. Sensors, 21(11), 3690. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21113690

Recent Presentations

  • Forest Fire Suppression Effectiveness in the Boreal Forest. Presented at the Alaska Fire Science Consortium webinar series on November 16, 2023. Click to view presentation.
  • Airtanker effectiveness: Increasing effort, decreasing success paradox. Presented at the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, National Fire Management Conservations webinar series on November 23, 2022. Click to view presentation. 
  • Fighting Fire from the Sky. Presented at the University of Toronto ‘Three Minute Thesis’ finals on April 7, 2022. Click to view presentation.