iFire AI: AI-powered Wildfire Simulation and 3D Immersive Visualisation

Abstract

Wildfires, especially extreme wildfires, cause irreversible damage to ecosystems, human lives and economies globally. To reduce such losses, understanding wildfires is crucial for effective preparedness. This research proposal introduces iFire AI, a collaborative project aimed at developing world's leading 3D immersive visualisation system for extreme wildfire for experiencing, understanding extreme wildfire scenarios. iFire AI utilises our advanced 360-degree immersive system AVIE, which visualises interactive landscapes and wildfire events rendered by Unreal Engine. To provide realistic extreme fire scenarios at an hourly temperate resolution, we propose a deep learning model supported by a Sim2Real pipeline that integrates simulated and real-world data to address data insufficiency and enhance model development and evaluation. Finally, we explore 3D tree reconstruction using 3D Gaussian splatting, creating visually realistic, computationally efficient, and dynamically interactive tree models. By placing users inside hyper-realistic wildfire environments, iFire AI can enhance users' risk perception, situational awareness and collaborative decision-making, and thereby reduce risks due to extreme wildfires and promote sustainable development.