Assessing roadside wildfire exposure and vulnerability: a case study of the GI-614 to Cadaqués (Catalonia, Spain)
Road networks located in wildfire-prone areas have been highlighted in past wildfire events as particularly vulnerable, especially when they are meant to be used for evacuation. In this paper we present a quantitative methodology for the assessment of the vulnerability of people and vehicles located...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:upcommonspor::bc6c186c213acfdb7f1bcbe7ac4a1ffa |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/460969 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2026.104761 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Wildfire vulnerability Outdoor fires Road network Tenability conditions Wildfire simulations Hybrid modelling Cap de Creus natural Park |
| Sumario: | Road networks located in wildfire-prone areas have been highlighted in past wildfire events as particularly vulnerable, especially when they are meant to be used for evacuation. In this paper we present a quantitative methodology for the assessment of the vulnerability of people and vehicles located on a road that is exposed to a wildfire. The approach consists of three steps: first, a qualitative analysis is performed to identify which section of a road is most hazardous; second, wildfire simulations are run to estimate the potential fire behaviour by the selected road segment; third, the fire behaviour characteristics obtained in the second step are used as inputs for FDS simulations to analyse the fire impact on the road. Performance criteria are defined for both vehicles and people to identify their vulnerability under the simulated fire conditions. The methodology is applied to the GI-614 road in Catalonia, Spain, for two wildfire scenarios. Results show that, under worst-case conditions, people would not be able to shelter safely inside their vehicles. |
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