Improving wildland firefighter safety through geospatial modeling of lookouts, communications, escape routes, and safety zones

This project improves wildland firefighter safety using novel digital mapping technology. Wildland firefighters routinely put themselves in high-risk environments to ensure the safety of others by containing the spread of potentially hazardous fires. In the roughly 100-year history of wildland firefighting in the US, there have been over 1000 documented fatalities, countless injuries, and untold numbers of close-calls and near-misses.

This research leverages the capabilities of global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), geospatial modeling, and remote sensing that creates more potent processes for real-time implementation of firefighter safety measures.

Lookouts, communications, escape routes, and safety zones (LCES) are four of the most critical safety tools employed by firefighters to minimize their risk of injury or fatality. These geospatial technologies enable firefighters to identify, evaluate, and implement LCES, and improve the efficiency and reliability of these critical decision-making processes.

This project includes an inquiry into how situational awareness and visibility can be assessed across entire landscapes to facilitate the placement of lookouts and successful maintenance of communications. It also examines the effects that vegetation has on pedestrian movement, providing insight into firefighter travel time along escape routes as they evacuate to safety zones.

Just as digital mapping technology has improved the convenience and efficiency in our daily lives, it can be leveraged to greatly improve the safety of wildland firefighters in a time of increasing fire activity and demand on firefighting resources. Reducing the safety risk to firefighters reduces the risk to all who live in fire-prone environments.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.