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Author
Loftsgaarden, D. O. | Andrews, P. L.
Title
Constructing and Testing Logistic Regression Models for Binary Data: Applications to the National Fire Danger Rating System.
Coporate
Intermountain Research Station, Ogden, UT
Report
FSGTR/INT-286, May 1992, 40 p.
Distribution
Available from National Technical Information Service
Keywords
fire danger rating | fire tests
Identifiers
logistic regression; fire occurrence
Abstract
Logistic regression was used in examining the relationship between National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) indexes and historical fire occurrence data. Basic techniques of constructing and testing logistic regression models are presented at a modest mathematical level. The emphasis of the paper is on tests of fit for logistic regression models. Specific results of the study are reported elsewhere. The explanatory (independent) variable is an NFDRS index. The response (dependent) variable is fire-day, which has value 1 if one or more fires occur in an area of concern on a certain day and 0 otherwise. This application differs from classic dose/response studies in several ways: there is not control over the "dose", the explanatory variable; indexes may range as high as 200 so it is necessary to group data into categories for tests of fit; and quick and easy methods for doing tests of fit are required for comparing 100 logistic regression models generated from the same set of weather data (20 fuel models x 5 indexes).