Dónde: Sala de conferencias del edificio Jerónimo de Ayanz de la Universidad Pública de Navarra & online
Cuándo: Miércoles, 7 de mayo de 2025 16h
Conferenciante: Valérie Bélanger (HEC Montréal)
Abstract: The recent fire seasons have been devastating, with unprecedented destruction to communities, ecosystems, and resources, highlighting the urgent need for a different approach to wildfire management. The disaster management cycle offers a comprehensive framework to address these challenges. Prevention focuses on reducing risks, such as creating firebreaks and enforcing fire-resistant building codes. Preparedness ensures readiness through evacuation plans, community training, and predictive modeling. Response involves immediate actions like deploying firefighters, helicopters, and water bombers to control fires and protect lives. Finally, recovery addresses the aftermath, including rebuilding homes, restoring forests, and supporting affected populations. By rethinking and strengthening each stage, we can mitigate the impacts of future wildfire seasons and build more resilient systems. Operations research, through tools like optimization and simulation, has the potential to play an important role in supporting all stages of disaster management. In prevention, optimization can help design firebreaks and allocate resources to high-risk areas to reduce vulnerability. During preparedness, simulation models can test evacuation plans and predict fire behavior under various scenarios, enabling better readiness. In response, real-time optimization can allocate resources like firefighters and aircraft to maximize effectiveness while minimizing response times. This presentation will highlight three initiatives that leverage simulation and optimization to support the design of firebreaks, evacuation planning, and real-time resource allocation, showcasing their potential to enhance wildfire management.
Bio de Valérie Belánger. She is a professor and researcher at HEC Montréal, where she is a member of the Pôle santé and the Research Center CIRRELT. She holds a Ph.D. in Administration from HEC Montréal and both an M.Sc. and a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Univ. Laval.
Her research focuses on healthcare logistics, emergency management, and transportation, with particular interest in process improvement. Current projects include real-time optimization and planning for emergency resource deployment and healthcare transportation systems.