A Framework for the Analysis of Wildfire Effects in Emergency Communication Systems

This paper aims at the development of a simulation framework to enhance the quality, performance and the resilience of the emergency radio communication systems during a wildfire event. To this extent, this research work includes several studies that will contribute for the better understanding of the propagation effects on radio signals under fire environments, the development of a fire-front building up model, the development of a radio propagation tool to obtain coverage maps based on relevant models for propagation in rural areas, particularly in highly dense forest areas, taking into account the topography and clutter in the radio path and the integration of wildfire build up models into the radio propagation tool for an all encompassing radio coverage tool to aid ground forces in realtime with identification of radio exclusion zones in real-time as fire-front develops.