Modelling and Mapping Dynamic Vulnerability to Better Assess WUI Evacuation Performance

Published

May 2, 2019

Author(s)

Steve Gwynne, Ronchi Enrico, Noureddine Benichou, Max Kinateder, Erica D. Kuligowski, Islam Gomaa, Masoud Adelzadeh

Abstract

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) incidents are likely to become more severe and will affect more and more people. Given their scale and complexity, WUI incidents require a multi-domain approach to assess their impact and the effectiveness of any mitigation efforts. The authors recently produced a specification for a simulation framework that quantifies evacuation performance during WUI incidents including inputs from three core domains: fire development, pedestrian performance and vehicular traffic [1]. This framework could produce new insights by simulating evolving conditions of WUI incidents based on developments and interactions between the core components. Thus, it aims to overcome known limitations of previous approaches (e.g., static assessment, single domain approaches, or lack of projection), as well as to provide explanatory insights into the outcomes produced by the simulation. The proposed framework would also advance geo-spatial mapping of WUI incidents. The concept of dynamic vulnerability, ( v) ̇ is at the core of the framework and is enabled by the integrated simulation framework and the emergent conditions predicted. This allows users to construct richer incident narratives from the perspective of specific locations or sub-populations, and also makes fewer simplifying assumptions regarding interactions between the three core domains.

Citation

Fire and Materials

Volume

(published online)

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

WUI fire, evacuation, mapping, vulnerability, modeling

Citation

Gwynne, S. , Enrico, R. , Benichou, N. , Kinateder, M. , Kuligowski, E. , Gomaa, I. and Adelzadeh, M. (2019), Modelling and Mapping Dynamic Vulnerability to Better Assess WUI Evacuation Performance, Fire and Materials, [online], https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.2708 (Accessed April 29, 2024)