Our approach with the Grand Challenges Initiative was to begin with topics that are not unique to fire engineering, but instead represent pressing global challenges where fire safety science and engineering can contribute to ongoing discussions that affect the daily lives of billions.
Rather than selecting these unilaterally, the SFPE Foundation polled members of the SFPE community and other stakeholders to solicit input. Based on survey and interview feedback, four topics were selected: Energy & Infrastructure, Resilience & Sustainability, Climate Change, and Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, & Cybersecurity. These topics are now the focus of the four GCI Working Groups.
The Working Groups acknowledge that each of these topics are not exclusive and overlaps in some areas with others. For example, Resilience & Sustainability and changes to Energy and Infrastructure are a response to Climate Change, developments in AI and Digitalization will impact Energy and Infrastructure, etc. Many working groups share common members to communicate across groups.
Read on for more information about what is included in each topic.
Energy & Infrastructure
New (renewable) energy generation, storage, and distribution technologies are exploding in use around the world as humanity attempts to cut down on CO2 production. With these new technologies comes the need for new infrastructure, tests, risk assessments, safety guidelines, and more. Performance-based design is especially important in this topic due to a lack of data sets (whether due to testing being expensive, or data being proprietary) and the lag in standards and codes. Due to the focus on risk and risk assessment, fire risk modeling is also integral to this topic. Representative topics in this area include:
- Fire and explosion hazards of emergent energy generation and distribution systems, e.g., photovoltaic (PV) systems (particularly building-applied and building-integrated PV), hydrogen, wind energy
- Fire and explosion hazards of energy storage systems (ESS), e.g., lithium-ion batteries, other battery chemistries, large outdoor battery ESS, fire protection of such systems
- Fire and explosion hazards of emergent transport and vehicle technologies, e.g. electric vehicles (EV), micro-mobility devices, battery misuse and abuse, EV fires, battery disposal/recycling
- Risk assessment for emergent energy technologies, i.e., risk assessment for all of the technologies listed above, including fires and other hazards, the impact of lifespan and aging, risk perception versus actual hazard, and communicating about risk with the fire service and other stakeholders
Learn more about the Energy & Infrastructure Working Group and read the Energy & Infrastructure White Paper.
Resilience & Sustainability
Increasing efforts to build and live in sustainable ways and to improve the resilience of communities against environmental challenges, including fire events, open up new areas of research. Performance-based design is especially important in this topic due to a lack of appropriate fire testing for new buildings materials intended to be sustainable/resilient, as well as for reducing the environmental impact of fire testing and fire protection systems. Representative topics in this area include:
- Quantifying the costs and benefits of resilience/sustainability in the built environment
- Fire testing of resilient/sustainable building materials
- Assessing fire hazards of new building materials/practices
- Environmental impact of fire testing
- Sustainable Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance (ITM) of fire protection systems
Learn more about the Resilience & Sustainability Working Group and read the Resilience & Sustainability White Paper.
Climate Change
The impacts and challenges of a changing climate have been increasingly visible, most obviously in the form of new and growing threats of wildfires and extended droughts. However, the impacts go further with severe complex disasters (flooding, hurricanes, etc.) and shifting populations in response to extreme climate. Modeling plays a large role in this topic area, and thus we are in need of high quality data for those models. There is also a significant Risk Assessment component due to the increasing complexity of disaster events. Human behavior is another integral thread, especially in regards to evacuations from disasters. Representative topics in this area include:
- Impact of fires on climate change and the environment, e.g., emission factors, air/water/soil quality, and using impact factors in fire modeling.
- Impact of climate change on fires, e.g., frequency and severity of Wildland-Urban Interface fires, changes in water supply, combined disaster events that include an element of fire, human migration away from severe climates, informal settlements
- Response and mitigation in the context of climate change, including fire prevention, fire suppression systems, firefighting resources, and fire detection
Learn more about the Climate Change Working Group and read the Climate Change White Paper.
Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, & Cybersecurity
The past few years have seen an explosion in the development and use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for all aspects of life, including fire engineering. The field is also undergoing a push towards digitalization, especially for building management and firefighting. With these leaps forward in technology comes a need for increased security surrounding digital tools. The use of AI/ML in fire modeling requires high quality data, and models must be validated. Digital firefighting tools developed for the fire service need to consider the end user and their human behavior. Representative topics in this area include:
- Production, management, storage and analysis of data for fire risk assessment, modeling, etc.
- Design, development, and validation of AI/ML tools for "smart" fire modeling
- Digitalized Design, Inspection, Operation, and Maintenance (DIOM) of fire protection systems, e.g., Building Information Modeling (BIM), digital twins
- Digitalizaed firefighting and evacuation, e.g, virtual reality training, firefighting robots, "smart" firefighting tools, digital evacuation systems, application of smart fire models, smart sensors
- Implementing all of the above to reduce the costs of fire response by investing in fire prevention
Learn more about the Digitalization, AI & Cybersecurity Working Group and read the Digitalization, AI & Cybersecurity White Paper.
You can also find a complete list of topics for all four areas in the GCI Topics Scope Document. If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to Amanda Tarbet, Research Manager, at atarbet@sfpefoundation.org.