ABSTRACT

Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, increasingly complex wildland-urban interfaces, and human-induced land-use changes have led to unprecedented, enhanced wildfire activities across the world. This design project, iFireNet, will connect clusters of expertise nationally and internationally to accelerate interdisciplinary actionable research on wildfires among academia, agencies, non-profit organizations and stakeholders. The drivers of wildfire behavior are local in nature, yet there are predictive models and management practices that can be applied in different geographic settings. iFireNet will act as a catalyst to integrate the scientific expertise and unique facilities and resources from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to address knowledge gaps in the science, engineering, as well as management aspects of wildfires. The international coordination of wildfire researchers will advance capacities to predict and manage wildland fires, thereby minimizing damage to life, nature, and property.

This network of networks will bring an approach currently missing in the wildfire research community that is needed to advance understanding of wildfire behavior, integrated fire risk management, design of prescribed fires, canopy-to-landscape scale forest disturbance, and fire-weather/climate coupling. iFireNet will create (1) synergy among complementary experiments in different geographical settings, (2) a standardized protocol to collect, interpret and share data from these experiments, (3) the basis of model intercomparisons in the context of multi-fidelity fire modeling, (4) a protocol for benchmarking wildfire simulations across multiple scales, and (5) a unified training module that adapts the best practices of local knowledge, yet can be translated in the international setting. The iFireNet web portal will host state-of-the-art predictive models, a comprehensive global database of protocols and standards for multiscale fire experiments, a catalogue of equipment, infrastructure and models, and a knowledge platform providing mentors, collaborators, training tools and opportunities for students and practitioners. iFireNet will train the next generation of wildland fire managers and scientists through the organization of student exchange programs, summer schools, conference chapters and joint mentoring of graduate and professional students. It is envisioned that the diversity of expertise and cross-disciplinary collaborations across academic researchers, federal agencies, non-profit organizations and industries of the participating countries will help solve some of the long-standing questions in the science of wildland fires.

The Accelerating Research through International Network-to-Network Collaborations (AccelNet) program is designed to accelerate the process of scientific discovery and prepare the next generation of U.S. researchers for multiteam international collaborations. The AccelNet program supports strategic linkages among U.S. research networks and complementary networks abroad that will leverage research and educational resources to tackle grand scientific challenges that require significant coordinated international efforts.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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