AI-Enabled Wildfire Risk Management: Toward Fire-Smart WUI Communities
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Hazards and Risk Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 28
Special Issue Editors
Interests: wildfire risk communication; generative AI; scenario-based fire simulation; geospatial AI & earth observation; multimodal data fusion; digital twins for ecosystems; citizen science & participatory design; on-device/mobile AI
Interests: artificial intelligence; digital technologies for agriculture and forestry; machine learning models; security research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Wildfire risk communication is a critical lever for climate adaptation in forested landscapes and wildland–urban interfaces (WUI), where climate-driven volatility and ecological degradation intensify exposure. This Special Issue invites research that advances accessible, actionable, and participatory approaches to risk communication, with a focus on hybrid digital–ecological tools. Building on European Union Green Deal initiatives, this Special Issue aims to address the impact of AI-enabled wildfire risk communication—via generative AI for localized, scenario-based fire simulations and lightweight, on-device plant species classification—on community preparedness, ecological literacy, and close-to-nature forestry and nature-based solutions. Contributions are sought that design, deploy, and rigorously evaluate AI-driven interfaces for preparedness; integrate citizen-science workflows with fire-behaviour insights and habitat data; assess usability, trust, and behaviour change in WUI populations; and address data governance, model transparency, accessibility, and inclusivity. Comparative case studies, methodological advances in multimodal data fusion, and frameworks that align FAIR and WCAG standards, support provenance tracking, and address ethical AI are particularly welcome. By synthesizing evidence across regions and governance contexts, this Special Issue aims to establish robust practices for co-adaptive risk communication, demonstrate measurable preparedness gains, and articulate a translational roadmap from prototypes to policy-relevant, scalable deployments in time for the 2026 fire season.
Dr. Krishna Chandramouli
Dr. Konstantinos Demestichas
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- wildfire risk management
- wildland–urban interface (WUI)
- generative AI
- scenario-based simulations
- citizen science
- nature-based solutions (NbS)
- plant species classification
- community preparedness and behaviour change
- FAIR data and accessibility (WCAG)
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