ALASKA: NSF EPSCoR researcher receives $620,000 FIREWALL grant
Alaska NSF EPSCoR Fire & Ice researcher Chris Waigl, has received a $620,000 NSF Navigating the New Arctic Award for her project, “Foundations for Improving Resilience in the Energy Sector against Wildfires on Alaskan Lands (FIREWALL).”
Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. This Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents, Data and Observation, Forecasting, and Resilient Infrastructure.
The FIREWALL project will develop a risk-informed decision-making platform that integrates
(1) formation, short-term prediction, and spatiotemporal propagation analysis of wildfires on Alaskan lands,
(2) Alaska’s electricity network planning, preparedness, response, and mitigation facing wildfires, and
(3) community health and social vulnerability metrics.
The project will have the potential to form holistic integrated roadmaps that can enhance public safety and resilience of the mission-critical lifeline infrastructure in Alaska and beyond when facing future wildfire disasters