Report GIRS 2022-03: Wildfire Egress Model and Simulation Platform

By: Pishahang, Mohammad; Droguett, Enrique; Ramos, Marilia; Mosleh, Ali
DOI: 10.34948/G4159S

Abstract: Wildfire is a significant threat to many communities in Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas and ensuring an efficient evacuation of these communities in case of wildfire is a pressing challenge. Efficient evacuation planning needs a comprehensive understanding of human decision-making, fire dynamics, and transportation aspects. This report documents the results of a PG&E sponsored project to develop a framework for realistically modeling WUI evacuation for planning and decision-making. The resulting model, WISE – Wildfire Safe Egress – Platform, integrates critical egress elements through a unique risk-based approach for estimating the probability of safe evacuation of a community. WISE is implemented as a web platform, allowing users to perform  egress assessment for a given community in a visual GIS-based environment.