Digital Twin for Wildfire Spreading: A New Hybrid Modeling Method Combining Continuous and Discrete Dynamics

This work introduces an Digital Twin system for simulating the spatiotemporal dynamics of surface wildfire spread across vegetated landscapes. At its core lies the Fire Engine, which is implemented through an innovative modeling approach that combines the continuous Rothermel’s model with the discrete Cellular Automata (CA) framework. Unlike most existing simulators in the literature, this Digital Twin requires only a limited set of inputs for a user defined area of interest: four satellite-derived products (NDVI, NDWI, LCT and DTM), combined with local wind and temperature and humidity measurements. Based on these minimal inputs, the simulator produces a dynamic map that visualizes the real-time evolution of surface wildfire, starting from one or multiple ignition points. The simulator is computationally lightweight, easy to deploy on standard hardware, and suitable for both real-time forecasting and offline scenario analysis. This makes it a valuable tool to support decision-making in wildfire risk assessment, early warning systems, and emergency response planning.