Title:
Evacuation Protocols during Wildfires – Modelling Fire and Smoke Spread
Agreement Value:
$120,000.00
Agreement Date:
Mar 2, 2022 - Mar 1, 2025
Description:
Current computational tools for the support of emergency evacuations in case of wildfire have three main weaknesses: Existing tools do not meet the emergency services’ needs for decision making and resource planning. Most existing tools assume the evacuation is a single-stage event (i.e., they do not address wildfire closure of routes, deployment of emergency resources or resident relocation), thus ignoring the multi-stage character of wildfires evacuations. Integrated solutions for evacuation modelling and resource optimization do not exist yet. The CONST Small teams project, selected in 2021 (Round 2) will address the three aforementioned weaknesses and build an integrated Resident Safety Platform (RSP) as part of its deliverables. The RSP will combine evacuation simulation and resource optimization in a way that the former will predict possible outcomes used by the latter. The integrated platform can be used by stakeholders to determine wildfire evacuation and resource allocation policies in an evidence-based manner. This collaboration with Imperial College specifically addresses the modelling of the fire and smoke spread in communities threatened by wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires and is a main input into the RSP.
Organization:
National Research Council Canada
Expected Results:
In the short term, anticipated outcomes will be strengthened collaborations across industry, academia, and government to support research excellence. In the medium term, anticipated outcomes will be the development of new and potentially disruptive technologies with collaborators. In the long term, find collaborative solutions to public policy challenges and create stronger innovation systems.
Reference Number:
172-2021-2022-Q4-988025
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Recipient's Legal Name:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Program:
Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program – Ideation Fund
Program Purpose:
The Ideation Fund is intended to encourage, test and validate transformative research ideas generated by teams of NRC scientific personnel and external collaborators with complementary capabilities, acting as a demonstration phase for a continually-evolving suite of research and development (R&D) deliverables at the NRC. The fund supports exploratory research through two mechanisms: the New Beginnings Initiative and the Small Teams Initiative.