Systematic review and research gaps on wildfire evacuations: infrastructure, transportation modes, networks, and planning

Abstract

ABSTRACT Wildfires pose significant threats to communities, requiring robust pre-event planning for efficient evacuations. Transportation systems are crucial for these efforts, yet global research gaps persist, especially those related to transportation assets and transportation modes beyond privately owned automobiles. This study conducts a systematic review of four under-researched areas – infrastructure, modality, networks, and planning – to build a more comprehensive understanding of wildfire evacuations. Initial research is emerging in these domains, related to post-fire debris flows, air and transit evacuations, network analysis, and shelter planning. However, systematic analyses, evidence, and recommendations remain lacking. This includes wildfire's direct impact on transportation infrastructure, multi-modal evacuations, routing strategies, and community-driven evacuation plans. We underscore the need for empirical evacuation strategies to foster resilience for wildfire-threatened communities, offering valuable context-specific insights, identifying key actions, and highlighting ongoing research gaps.