Wildfire evacuation trigger buffers for sensitive areas: EVITA project

Wildfire is a significant hazard for sensitive areas, i.e. geographic regions where urban communities, installations for processing or storing hazardous chemical substances, valuable assets and monuments, or other important infrastructure meet or intermix with fire-prone wildlands. To avoid human casualties, organized evacuation of the population should be examined as a measure to be appropriately taken, while the disastrous event is in progress. One of the tools proposed for supporting decisions regarding initiating evacuation is the delineation of “Trigger Buffers”. To this end, in the scope of EVITA project (Wildfire Evacuation Trigger Buffers for Sensitive Areas), we have developed a web-based computational system capable of simulating the propagation of wildfire incidents, according to several topographic and meteorological factors. Based on this system, Trigger Buffers are identified for user-selected sensitive locations. Moreover, “Landmark” locations that if burnt, great risk is incurred for more than two neighboring sensitive locations are identified for wide geographic regions. The web application has been efficiently developed to provide wide geographical coverage. The applicability of the web application has been tested by operational and tactical users (players) during a Table-Top exercise (TTX) that took place in Athens, Greece, on March 28, 2014. The feedback provided by the players is now being implemented in the system.