pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Mitigating Wildfire Impacts on Mobility using GIS, Fire Simulation, and Operations Modeling

PI: Joseph Louis (OSU), Joseph.Louis@oregonstate.edu, ORCID: 0000-0002-2957-9146

Co PIs: Yelda Turkan (OSU)

AMOUNT & MATCH: $40,000 from PacTrans; $40,000 Match

PERFORMANCE PERIOD: 3/16/2021 – 3/15/2022

STATUS: Completed

CATEGORIES: Wildfire, Resiliency, Operations

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DESCRIPTION: By studying the impact of wildfires on the transportation network in vulnerable areas, this research contributes to PacTrans’ mission by ensuring transportation mobility for rural communities for evacuation, rescue, and recovery; as well as the safety of communities by enabling first responders have access to them. Specifically, this project proposes the use of wildfire simulation, geospatial analysis, and discrete event simulation to enable transportation agencies to evaluate the impact of wildfires on roadway networks and thereby enable the optimal allocation of resources to enable speedy recovery of roadway assets. The major outcome of this proposed project will be a comprehensive road map for studying the impact of fires on transportation networks with the goal of mitigating their adverse impacts. Specifically, this research is expected to create new knowledge in the following aspects of wildfire impact on roadways: 1. Quantification of the impact of wildfires on road networks; (2) Quantification of the impact of reduced capacity networks on travel times; (3) Evaluation of recovery times to clear and repair roadways. These results will be synthesized in a geospatial and simulation tool that enables decision making for transportation planning and logistics in the aftermath of wildfires.