What makes a good fire simulator?

This social research project aims to undertake a deep engagement process to understand better 'what makes a good fire simulator?'. The information can be used to understand the strengths and weaknesses of current systems and provide guidance on how we can improve systems to benefit all users in the future.

The key objectives are to establish a consultation process to determine who uses fire simulators, how they are used, and what decisions they support.

For each use case, investigate what makes a simulator 'good', and identify measures of what is 'good enough' for their intended decision-making purpose. This could include:

• time to produce predictions
• prediction accuracy (as determined by user needs - this is likely to include multiple criteria)
• computing requirements
• appearance and nature of outputs
• ease of use/simplicity
• reliability and stability
• representation of uncertainty
• academic foundation
• history of use in practice/testing
• ability to customise
• cost

These will be used to develop explicit criteria that will enable simulators to be evaluated and guide the development of simulators.