FIRE-WUI: Predict, Warn, Protect: Advancing a Unified Wildfire Warning System for U.S. Public Safety and Resilience

Wildfires pose a serious threat to public safety, property, and local economies, particularly in wildland-urban interface (WUI) regions where homes, infrastructure, and emergency response systems are highly exposed. Yet, unlike other extreme hazards such as tornadoes or hurricanes, the United States lacks a unified system for issuing short-term wildfire warnings. Current alerts are often too broad to support timely, protective action. This project addresses that gap by advancing the science and decision-making needed to support a national wildfire warning system. The broader impacts of the project include improved fire prediction, clearer risk communication, and stronger coordination among emergency agencies—helping communities act quickly when wildfires threaten. The project also supports workforce development by training early-career researchers and emergency professionals. By turning scientific knowledge into practical tools, the project helps save lives, reduce economic losses, and build national resilience to future wildfires. The goal of this project is to build the foundational knowledge needed to support a unified wildfire warning system capable of delivering short-term, location-specific alerts that save lives and reduce losses. The research is organized into three integrated thrusts. Thrust 1 advances earth and atmospheric sciences by improving understanding of fire-atmosphere coupling to enhance short-term, highly localized fire prediction. Thrust 2 advances the decision, risk, and management sciences by examining how people interpret and respond to fire warnings under uncertainty, and by identifying institutional and operational factors that support effective coordination across jurisdictions. Thrust 3 uses a convergence research approach to develop a transdisciplinary network that links researchers, emergency managers, and policymakers. Together, these efforts help inform the design of a scalable, scientifically grounded, and operationally feasible wildfire warning system for the United States. 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.