city firefighters response model

Modeling Multiple Ignition Scenarios for Assessment of Firefighting Strategies

Yonatan Shaham, PhD candidate

Supervisor: Itzhak BenensonPorter School for Environmental Studies

GeoSimulation and Spatial AnalysisTel Aviv University

Motivation• Multiple ignition scenarios pose

a great threat to cities as firefighters are outnumbered by simultaneous fires:

• Multiple ignition scenarios include: fires following earthquake, fires cased by wars and rocket lunching, industrial catastrophes and severe wild-fires

• Simultaneous fires cause systemic effects and Firefighters are outnumbered

City Firefighters' Response model (CIFER) | Yonatan Shaham, PhD candidate | Supervisor: Itzhak Benenson Porter School for Environmental Studies, GeoSimulation and Spatial Analysis | Tel Aviv University

The meaning of space• Fire ignition is dependent on

the presence of people which is characterized by tempo-spatial patterns

• Fire spread is dependent on:• The spatial distribution of fuel• The spatial configuration of

constructions• The spatial relations of constructions

and vegetation• Meteorological conditions

• Firefighting is dependent on:• Fire spread• Accessibility – road network,

congestion, city structure

Spatially-explicit agent-based simulation of firefighting activity: Firefighters facing burning room and impinging flames (model prototype)


CIFER: Research Goals

• To understand the dynamics of multiple-ignition scenarios with respect to the spatial properties of the Israeli city

• To evaluate exiting firefighting strategies in multiple-ignition scenarios with respect to the spatial properties of the Israeli city

• To identify and evaluate novel firefighting strategies in multiple-ignition scenarios with respect to the spatial properties of the Israeli city


City Firefighters' Response model (CIFER) | Yonatan Shaham, PhD candidate | Supervisor: Itzhak Benenson Porter School for Environmenal Studies, GeoSimulation and Spatial Analysis | Tel Aviv University

Agent-based models and thebounded rationality of

firefighters• People are very poor optimizers and do tackle problems by using

heuristics and rule-based algorithms.• This is true also and even more prominently for firefighters:

• Firefighters' modus operandi is to follow rules and procedures• Firefighters need to take quick decisions under higher than usual pressure• Firefighters will face scarce information of poor quality during multiple ignition

scenarios

• Thus, CIFER is an agent-base model which takes firefighters as:• autonomous agents• following rules• while retrieving and exchanging information

• This allows to study self-organization and emergence of system-level dynamics

• Professional firefighter officers will engage with CIFER in game mode to explore strategies


CIFER: general scheme


CIFER: agents and objects


Modeling fire spread inMediterranean and Middle-East

cities• Model of fire spread in

Mediterranean and Middle-East cities, should account for:

• non-flammability of the majority of constructions

• vegetation that fill inter-building space

• and is highly flammable during the long summers that last up to 8 months

Trees between two apartments buildings acting as a fire spread accelerator, Tel Aviv, Israel.

CIFER base layer: spatially explicit model of urban fire spread with many ignitions



CIFER top layer: firefighters’ decision making - UI for

professional firefighter officers


For more information

Yonatan [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

city firefighters response model

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