Modelling forest fire spread through discrete event simulation

First Online: 07 January 2024Forest fires are becoming a more common occurrence in Portugal as well as worldwide. To extinguish or reduce them more quickly and effectively, it is crucial to understand how they spread. This paper presents a study and a model that shows how wildfires spread, assuming the forest can be represented by a graph, where the nodes correspond to forest stands and the arcs to the path between them. In order to do this, algorithms were developed in Python, using discrete event simulation, that allow modelling the progression of the fire on the graph. This fire propagation model takes into account several aspects of the forest, the wind being the most influential one. Some tests were performed, considering different ignition points, wind directions and wind speeds.This work was supported by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (FCT), within the Center for Research and Development in Mathematics and Applications (CIDMA), project UIDB/04106/2020; and through project PCIF/GRF/0141/2019-An Optimization Framework to reduce Forest Fire

Integrated urban freight logistics combining passenger and freight flows - Mathematical model proposal

The aim of this research is to propose an urban logistics distribution service which benefits from the already installed passenger transport network. This service is based upon the concept of integration of the existing passenger transport network with the urban freight process. The aim is to reduce the number of fossil combustion powered commercial vehicles traveling within city boundaries, solely for goods transportation, thus contributing to reduce negative effects of urban logistics activities, namely pollution, noise, traffic congestion and accidents. Also, integrating goods and passenger flows will promote higher efficiency rates for the passenger transport network and enhance living conditions within major urban centers. A mathematical model for the operational planning of the proposed urban logistics distribution service is proposed. This model consists of assigning origins loads (or requests) to inbound hubs (bus operator centers), transferring the inbound hubs loads to a bus service, and transferring the bus loads to bus stops, to be collected by micro-logistics operators operating environmentally friendly vehicle fleets. The objective is to minimize the total service time while assuring services synchronization along the network and balancing the loads with the system capacities.(undefined

Hypocalcaemia as a Reversible Cause of Acute Heart Failure in a Long-Term Survivor of Childhood Cancer

Hypocalcaemia is known for its neuromuscular symptoms, which are rapidly alleviated by intravenous supplementation. Calcium is also essential for both cardiac cell excitability and contraction. We present a case of acute heart failure due to hypocalcaemia in a young male with a complex medical history

Iterated local search for the placement of wildland fire suppression resources

We consider the problem of, given a landscape represented by a gridded network and a fire ignition location, deciding where to locate the available fire suppression resources to minimise the burned area and the number of deployed resources as a secondary objective. We assume an estimate of the fire propagation times between adjacent nodes and use the minimum travel time principle to model the fire propagation at a landscape-level. The effect of locating a resource in a node is that it becomes protected and the fire propagation to its unburned adjacent nodes is delayed. Therefore, the problem is to identify the most promising nodes to locate the resources, which is solved by a novel iterated local search (ILS) metaheuristic. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model from the literature is used to validate the proposed method in 32 grid networks with sizes 6x6, 10x10, 20x20 and 30x30, with two different number of fire suppression resources (64 problems). Our ILS produced optimal solutions in 40 cases out of 41 known optimal lower bounds. The proposed method’s effectiveness is also due to its short computing times and small coefficients of variation of the objective function values. We also provide a categorised literature review on fire suppression deterministic optimisation models, from which we conclude that approximate collaborative approaches seldom have been applied in the past and, according to the results obtained, can successfully address the complexity of fire suppression, reaching good quality solutions even for large scale instances.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope UIDB/00319/2020 and within project PCIF/GRF/0141/2019 “O3F - An Optimization Framework to Reduce Forest Fire”. This paper has greatly benefit ted from the insights and suggestions of anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the pape

The reciprocal value of Doctoral Design Research when housed within a Creative Business Center: a case study in Porto, Portugal

[EN] This paper presents the case study of a pilot partnership between a Doctoral Program in Design and a Science and Technology Park located in Porto, Portugal. The partnership has been in effect since 2013; the Doctoral Program has resided within the premises of the Science and Technology Park, as an immersive research environment, in order to foster knowledge transfer and collaborations through gradual, mutual and informal recognition of reciprocal assets. We contextualise the premises and stakeholders in this partnership, outline the empirical methodologies employed, and provide examples of selected projects that illustrate the implementation of these methodologies. Furthermore, we provide an inventory of challenges detected throughout the development of the partnership, as well as information on how these challenges are being overcome. We conclude by summarising the main accomplishments of this partnership, as well as outlining validation by various external agents and opening up prospects for future development. These will include thorough materials that may be of use for implementation in other academic, scientific and entrepreneurial environments. Keywords: Design research; entrepreneurship; knowledge transfer; creative industries.The authors wish to thank the Foundation for Science and Technology for the financial support of PhDDesign through the grant ref. PD/00048/2012.Alvelos, H.; Barreto, S.; São Simão, F. (2014). The reciprocal value of Doctoral Design Research when housed within a Creative Business Center: a case study in Porto, Portugal. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1263-1270. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.5580OCS1263127

Components of spirituality to safeguard life for the development of an integral design management approach

The present article is the initial result of fieldwork on design and spirituality in the scope of ongoing doctoral research in design. The research has been developed with Lusophone 'quilombolas', Afro- Brazilian and traditional family farming groups and communities from Brazil and Portugal, which present implicit spiritually driven design management approaches. The project proposes that a spiritual dimension should be a fundamental component of a design management strategy that is intended to be integral. The first learning case was carried out in ethnographic format with the Association of Women Farmers of Castelões (Associação das Mulheres Agricultoras de Castelões) in Portugal. The chosen methodology was the decomposition of the design and spirituality concept from the thoughts of Papanek (1971, 1995), Schumacher (1974), Walker (2011), Margolin (2014) and Escobar (2018). Components of spirituality were identified to guide field data collection. Subsequently, these components were identified from the participatory experience and participant observation with the artisans and analysed. In conclusion, it was possible to conceive 'components' of a reinvented spirituality for today, 'Spirituality to Safeguard Life'. These may support the development of a spiritually driven design management approach with a Lusophone reference, entitled 'Integral Design Management'. It is planned to apply this approach in academic, business, governmental, non-governmental and civil society environments. Through its practice, it is intended to promote the implementation of transformative systems with values and paradigm shifts for the recovery, flourishing and continuity of life