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

该项目利用新的数字测绘技术提高了荒地消防员的安全。荒野消防员经常将自己置于高风险环境中，通过控制潜在危险火灾的蔓延来确保他人的安全。在美国大约100年的野地灭火历史中，有记录的死亡人数超过1000人，受伤人数不计其数，还有数不清的死里逃生和死里逃生。这项研究利用了全球定位系统(GPS)、地理信息系统(GIS)、地理空间建模和遥感的能力，为实时实施消防员安全措施创造了更强大的过程。瞭望台、通信、逃生路线和安全区(LCES)是消防员为将伤亡风险降至最低而使用的四种最关键的安全工具。这些地理空间技术使消防员能够识别、评估和实施LCES，并提高这些关键决策过程的效率和可靠性。该项目包括探讨如何评估对整个情况的情况认识和能见度，以促进设置瞭望台和成功维持通信。它还研究了植被对行人移动的影响，为消防员疏散到安全区时沿逃生路线的旅行时间提供了洞察。就像数字地图技术提高了我们日常生活的便利性和效率一样，在火灾活动和对消防资源的需求不断增加的时代，数字地图技术可以被用来极大地提高荒地消防员的安全。降低消防员的安全风险减少了对所有生活在火灾易发环境中的人的风险。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.