Water-Based Shields Deployment on Terrain during Wildfire Spread: A Modelling Approach Using Distributed Information through Autonomous Agents ^†

Abstract

Wildfire spread is of concern whenever the physical dimension of the involved area makes a scale jump due to several conditions, such as the interplay of nature and shape of the combustible terrain involved, the atmospheric conditions and the turbulence generated, the road paths that can be followed by rescuers in tackling the fire and by people fleeing away. To help manage such a critical situation and to assist action planning in rescue operations and territorial recognition, a modelling approach based on autonomous agents can be an added value if the essential elements of the problem can be captured and, then, solutions can be presented. This study deals with modelling some actions of active protection during wildfire spread using distributed information through autonomous agents by means of the NetLogo platform. This is a tool where the elements of the problem at hand are translated into different entities—the agents—that may interact in different ways, thus modelling physical, logical or cognitive behaviours to make some examples. There are three types of NetLogo agents: patches, turtles and links; they live in the virtual world where some of the attributes of the agents can be planned in advance, and the actions expressing the interactions among them may then emerge through the context, by reaction or adaptation. A terrain is modelled considering some typical attributes expressing the nature of the combustible material present and its humidity, the free spaces between combustible areas, the variation in altitude, slopes and solar exposition. The atmospheric conditions are modelled considering wind speed and direction. The fire spread is modelled by an advancement of a representative flame front depending on terrain and wind. The active protection is modelled by deploying water-based shields through different patterns to see their impact and ability to tackle the fire’s advancement.