[ Simulation / Digital engineering ]

FireSim

Bushfire evacuation, communications resilience, and the decisions that connect them.

My role: Co-developer and researcher
Status: Research simulation
Year: 2026
Methods & tools: Agent-based modellingPythonCesiumGeospatial simulation

FIRESIM / THE PROJECT FILM

Every route starts with a decision.

18 SECOND EXCERPT / BATEMANS BAY

Actual project animation: simulated household journeys, routes and destinations in a Black Summer scenario around Batemans Bay.

01 / PEOPLEHouseholds respond to changing conditions.

02 / CONNECTIONSNetworks carry the information behind decisions.

03 / MOVEMENTIndividual choices become evacuation patterns.

[ 01 / The context ]

The question.
The approach.

What happens when people need to evacuate and the networks carrying their warnings are under pressure? FireSim brings household evacuation and communications resilience into a geospatial research environment. It combines the FireSim agent-based model with a 3D console for exploring how a bushfire scenario unfolds.

How the work comes together

FireSim was co-developed with Associate Professor Hitomi Nakanishi at the University of Canberra. The research connects agent-based modelling with behavioural insights and an optional agentic-AI decision layer. The simulation console makes model states and scenario comparisons visible on an interactive globe.

People and place

Explore household evacuation decisions alongside roads, hazards and the geography of the Black Summer case study.

Networks under pressure

Study the interaction of tower power, battery backup, coverage, congestion and warning dissemination.

What if?

Compare network scenarios and a portable-tower intervention through paired simulation runs.

[ 02 / Research scope ]

Where the work stands.

A research reconstruction and counterfactual simulation. It is not an operational evacuation forecast. Results depend on model assumptions, scenario inputs and the version of the simulation being evaluated.