Foundations for Improving Resilience in the Energy Sector against Wildfire on Alaskan Lands (FIREWALL)

NSF Award # 2022705

This planning project focused on enhancing energy grid resilience against wildfires in Alaska by bringing together experts from academia, industry, local agencies, state-wide organizations, and other key stakeholders. In particular, the team collaborated to understand (1) how different wildfires can be triggered in Alaska, (2) how bi-directional interactions of the energy network and wildfires can be characterized in Alaska, (3) how strategic plans for resilience (structural hardening and mitigation mechanisms), necessary regulations and policies to structure the modern energy sector in Alaska can be guided and (4) how local communities can play an active role in implementing the plans against wildfires, and how knowledge generated can facilitate information discovery for effective response and recovery actions, should wildfires occur in the future.

Through monthly meetings and brainstorming sessions, the FIREWALL team (1) initiated communications with several stakeholders, electric industry partners, and technology developers, (2) became familiar with the past and existing practices in Alaska when dealing with wildfires, and (3) identified several major gaps, all highlighting the importance of and the need for a synergistic approach in establishing a two-way dialogue among electric utilities and key stakeholders. The FIREWALL workshop in 2021 was organized around the main theme of facilitating this convergence. The workshop was organized around multiple panel discussions and breakout sessions to understand the past and ongoing research on Alaska wildfires, transfer knowledge from other wildfire-vulnerable regions beyond Alaska (with both similar and different fire regimes, landscapes, electricity grid architectures), foster communications between key stakeholders, community liaisons, and research institutes for linking science to practice, and integrate federal perspectives on wildfire resilience into FIREWALL efforts and on how the project can contribute to advancing national goals and priorities. Key takeaways from the 2021 FIREWALL workshop and the follow-up workshops-which focused primarily on remote electricity grid infrastructure- highlighted several needs: accurate high-impedance fault identification, risk layers tailored to Alaska's unique environment and vegetation patterns, and metrics to assess social vulnerabilities in remote communities with sparse populations. Through collaboration with community members and key stakeholders and guided by multidisciplinary discussions during the FIREWALL planning activities, the project team developed a research proposal to tackle the challenges of wildfire resilience in complex terrains and for vulnerable electricity infrastructure.

The FIREWALL planning project provided a fruitful opportunity for multiple junior faculties of different disciplines and graduate students to work with a group of experienced highly skilled experts on the topics around wildfire resilience in the Arctic. It also provided opportunities for the team (including graduate and undergraduate students) to publish and present research findings to a broader community in various venues including NSF NNA Community Office Annual Meetings, IEEE Future Directions, IEEE SusTech workshop, Arctic Encounter Symposium, and Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference and Forum. The planning grant significantly strengthened the University of Alaska Anchorage's ability to collaborate with various stakeholders in Alaska and partner with other universities. It also positioned the FIREWALL team to contribute valuable knowledge to wildfire resilience research, addressing challenges faced by other states, such as Hawaii, as evidenced by the Maui wildfire.

NSF Award Number # 2022505

In recent years, Alaska has witnessed high-intensity wildfires that are projected to increase in frequency and magnitude. Wildfires propagate long distances from wildlands into developed areas and cause structure loss and fatalities. Wildfire losses continue to grow globally and are driven by a number of factors including climate change, expanded wildland-human interfaces, and suppression policies. The interaction between the energy network and wildfires has proven to be highly interconnected as wildfires are compounded directly and indirectly by imprecise management of the energy network. The situation becomes further complicated in regions with complex terrains, constant exposure to nature's forces, and vulnerable infrastructure.  

The principal objective of the FIREWALL planning project was to explore planning activities leading to a convergence research plan, team formation, and capacity building within the Arctic community for resilience against wildfires. The FIREWALL project united experts from academia, industry, as well as local and state-wide agencies and stakeholders. This planning project brainstormed during its performance period seeking research directions to gain a better understanding of the existing challenges, lessons learned, and best practices in fighting against wildfires in the Arctic. In particular, the team collaborated to understand (1) how different wildfires can be triggered in Alaska, (2) how bi-directional interactions of the energy network and wildfires can be characterized in Alaska, (3) how strategic plans for resilience (structural hardening and mitigation mechanisms), necessary regulations and policies to structure the modern energy sector in Alaska can be guided and (4) how local communities can play an active role in implementing the plans against wildfires and how knowledge generated can facilitate information discovery for effective response and recovery actions, should wildfires occur in the future.

Through monthly meetings and brainstorming sessions, the FIREWALL team (1) initiated communications with several stakeholders, electric industry partners, and technology developers, (2) became familiar with the past and existing practices in Alaska when dealing with wildfires, and (3) identified several major gaps, all highlighting the importance of and the need for a synergistic approach in establishing a two-way dialog among electric utilities and key stakeholders. The FIREWALL workshop in 2021 was organized around the main theme of facilitating this convergence. The workshop was organized in multiple panel discussions and breakout sessions to understand the past and ongoing research on Alaska wildfires, transfer knowledge from other wildfire-vulnerable regions beyond Alaska (with both similar and different fire regimes, landscapes, electricity grid architectures), foster communications between key stakeholders, community liaisons, and research institutes for linking science to practice, and integrate federal perspectives on wildfire resilience into FIREWALL efforts and on how the project can contribute to advancing national goals and priorities. With the synergistic models formed and convergent multidisciplinary discussions guided during the FIREWALL planning activities, knowledge was co-generated around better understanding, navigating, planning, and adapting to the increasingly dynamic Alaska vulnerable to wildfires.

The FIREWALL planning project provided a fruitful opportunity for multiple junior faculties of different disciplines to work with a group of experienced highly-skilled experts on the topics around wildfire resilience in the Arctic. It also provided opportunities for the team (including graduate and undergraduate students) to publish and present research findings to a broader community in various venues.