Researchers at the UAB have designed a new real-time fire propagation simulator

The new wildfire simulator was developed as part of the SALUS project (Wildfire Risk Solutions for Spain), which is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation through a call for public-private partnership projects. The project aims to improve Spain's capacity for wildfire prediction, alerts and risk management.

This tool can predict how a forest fire will evolve in near real time, which is crucial for deciding where to act, what resources to deploy, and which areas need urgent protection. The simulator is based on an innovative propagation paradigm that uses a point cloud to represent fire, allowing much more accurate calculations of how it will advance at any given moment and at any given location. This approach guarantees fast, stable, high-resolution simulations. “Unlike classic simulators, our prototype always reaches a result, solving problems encountered in other systems that either do not finish correctly or enter infinite loops,” explains Ana Cortés, the project's lead researcher from the Department of Computer Architecture and Operating Systems at the UAB. Pre-doctoral researchers Irene González Fernández and Paula Sánchez Gayet, also from the UAB, participated in the simulator's development. 

Collaborating with Mitiga Solutions and Helipistas was key to making the project possible. The simulator is integrated into an early warning system that was developed jointly with Mitiga Solutions and which is automatically activated when a potential fire is detected. The system can be activated in various ways, including via alerts from citizens using a mobile application, the detection of thermal anomalies by satellite, and information captured from operational helicopters.

Helipistas has also equipped its helicopters with LiDAR sensors, optical cameras and thermal cameras to capture the perimeter of the fire and the state of the vegetation in almost real time. This data is integrated with automatically updated vegetation maps and meteorological information using open data and artificial intelligence techniques, significantly improving the quality of predictions about the fire's evolution.

Once activated, the system runs hundreds of simulations simultaneously to show the potential spread of the fire. These are presented in the form of clear visual maps that can be viewed using a web viewer designed specifically to facilitate decision-making by emergency managers.

Improved risk management and insurance applications

As well as supporting firefighting efforts, the tool developed by the UAB research team can be used to assess potential damage to infrastructure, such as the electricity grid, roads, and buildings. This information is crucial for public administrations and emergency services to plan protective measures and minimise the economic and environmental impact of fires.

Mitiga Solutions uses the results of simulations and probability maps to develop a new parametric insurance scheme for forest assets in this context. This type of insurance enables compensation to be calculated automatically, eliminating the need for experts to be sent out to the field. Instead, it is based on risk indices and the area burned. This speeds up the response to damage caused by large forest fires.