Bushfire ready, thanks to artificial intelligence

Professor Lin Pdgham

During the chaos of a bushfire evacuation, people can be unpredictable. A new artificial intelligence program, developed by RMIT researchers, helps communities and emergency services plan for large evacuations.

The program has been developed after many years of research. But it was a gift from the Telematics Trust that has enabled it to be used in the community. Artificial Intelligence Professor Lin Padgham explains how the evacuation simulation software could save lives.

“Prior to the big bushfires in 2009, Australia didn’t always recommend evacuations – the policy was ‘stay and defend’. After people died on Black Saturday, that changed – but the services knew nothing about how to evacuate people or how long it takes.

“We wanted to build a planning tool to understand how evacuations of large areas work in a situation where you need to get a lot of people out quickly.

“The Telematics grant has enabled us to take five years of research and actually start to turn it into something that the community and Mount Alexander Shire can really use.

“It’s very much informing policy at that local council level and we’re hoping to get funding to take it to the next level, so it can be used across the whole of Victoria – or even the whole of Australia.”

Thanks to the Telematics Trust The Telematics Trust funds initiatives that show an innovative use of technology and address important practical problems in our community and environment.