FIREWISE (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01 — MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships)
Proactive wildfire resilience assessment and management
PI: Dr Sotirios Argyroudis | Marie-Curie Research Fellow: Dr Stavros Sakellariou
Partners: Factor Social (Portugal) | Joint Research Centre (Italy)
Background and added value
FIREWISE aims to advance wildfire risk assessment, modelling and management by strategically and operationally optimizing initial attack actions, considering regions’ susceptibility and the response of critical infrastructure. For the first time, fire simulations will feed the performance-based wildfire risk assessment of critical assets as well as the spatial optimization of land and aerial forces. Moreover, the simulation outputs will be used for different scenarios of evacuation process. Through a comprehensive approach, FIREWISE will create a novel framework and a web-based tool for proactive wildfire resilience assessment and management, bolstered by robust case studies in wildfire-devastated areas of Rhodes, Greece (2023 megafire), and Leiria, Central Portugal (2017 megafire).
FIREWISE Objectives
The project aims to deliver a practical and robust framework for the quantitative risk analysis of ecosystems and critical infrastructure exposed to wildfires, which will facilitate proactive, scenario-based and well-informed decision-making in wildfire risk management. The measurable objectives of FIREWISE are the following:
Objective 1. Deliver novel fragility and vulnerability curves for representative and critical assets in Europe such as buildings (dwellings, touristic facilities) and energy infrastructure exposed to wildfires.
Objective 2. Develop a comprehensive multi-objective spatial optimisation system of ground-based and aerial firefighting resources, incorporating risk analysis to enable immediate and efficient response to catastrophic wildfires.
Objective 3. Establish an integrated evacuation plan utilising agent-based modelling (ABM) techniques.
Objective 4. Implement the developed framework and tools in selected high-risk areas in Europe that have experienced devastating wildfires, causing substantial economic and social consequences.
FIREWISE methodological framework
