Fire Risk Assessment and Safety Management in Buildings and Urban Spaces

This section provides a platform for research that advances our understanding and management of fire risks in buildings, infrastructure, and urban environments. Emphasising different approaches and innovative perspectives, this section will inform effective fire risk mitigation strategies and strengthen safety measures in various settings.

We invite contributions using established or emerging methods focused on predicting, assessing, and managing fire risks. Topics of interest range from statistical and computational modelling to hands-on, real-world applications, covering areas such as the following:

• Advanced Modelling and Simulation: Research that develops or applies new models, such as probabilistic analyses, simulations, and machine learning techniques, to better predict fire behaviour and assess risks in complex environments.
• Innovative Materials and Structural Fire Engineering: Research on fire-resistant materials and fire-safe building designs is essential for advancing fire safety. Contributions that test and analyse materials, assess structural resilience, or explore performance-based fire safety design are highly encouraged.
• Fire Safety in Urban and Infrastructure Settings: With cities becoming denser and infrastructure more interconnected, it is vital to examine fire prevention and control methods for urban spaces, underground environments, and critical infrastructure. Studies tailored to these challenging settings are especially welcome.
• Dynamics of Fire and Hazardous Materials: Research into fire dynamics involving hazardous materials—whether pool, coal, or electrical fires in photovoltaic systems—is essential. Studies that analyse the behaviour of these materials during combustion to enhance our understanding and mitigate risks are particularly encouraged.
• Risk-Based Safety Planning and Management: Conducting research on practical fire safety planning, emergency preparedness, and evacuation strategies is crucial. Contributions using risk-based methods to optimise response efforts and enhance safety management practices are encouraged.
• Interdisciplinary and Practical Insights: Fire risk assessment is complex and requires insights from fields beyond traditional engineering. Studies employing multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate perspectives from urban planning, social sciences, or environmental studies are particularly valued. Application-focused studies that provide robust experimental data to validate models are also welcome.

Overall, this section will bridge theory and practice, supporting work that ranges from fundamental research to practical applications in fire safety. By fostering collaboration and sharing insights across disciplines, this section seeks to contribute to the continuous improvement of fire risk prevention, preparedness, and response strategies, ultimately making buildings and urban spaces safer.

• Fire risk assessment
• Fire dynamics
• Structural fire engineering
• Fire-resistant materials
• Fire safety management
• Fire simulation and modelling
• Performance-based fire design
• Interdisciplinary fire safety research
• Evacuation and emergency preparedness
• Experimental validation in fire engineering