scholarly journals TEMPORAL CHANGES TO FIRE RISK IN DISPARATE WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE COMMUNITIES

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola C Leyshon
Keyword(s):  
Fire Risk ◽  
Temporal Changes ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface

Interpreting federal policy at the local level: the wildland - urban interface concept in wildfire protection planning in the eastern United States

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie A. Grayzeck-Souter ◽  
Kristen C. Nelson ◽  
Rachel F. Brummel ◽  
Pamela Jakes ◽  
Daniel R. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Public Land ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Local Response ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Fuels Reduction ◽  
Eastern Usa ◽  
Healthy Forests Restoration Act

In 2003, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) called for USA communities at risk of wildfire to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) requiring local, state and federal actors to work together to address hazardous fuels reduction and mitigation efforts. CWPPs can provide the opportunity for local government to influence actions on adjacent public land, by establishing local boundaries of the wildland–urban interface (WUI), the area where urban lands meet or intermix with wildlands. The present paper explores local response to the HFRA and CWPPs in the eastern USA, specifically if and how communities are using the policy incentive to identify the WUI. We conducted document reviews of eastern CWPPs, as well as qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with participants in four case studies. We found tremendous variation in local response to HFRA, with plans completed at multiple scales and using different planning templates. The WUI policy incentive was not used in all CWPPs, suggesting that the incentive is not as useful in the eastern USA, where public land is less dominant and the perceived fire risk is lower than in the West. Even so, many communities in the East completed CWPPs to improve their wildfire preparedness.

scholarly journals Managing the Wildland–Urban Interface in the Northeast: Perceptions of Fire Risk and Hazard Reduction Strategies

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Blanchard ◽  
Robert L. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Pine Barrens ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Hazard Reduction ◽  
Mechanical Removal ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Wildland Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Hazard Reduction

Abstract Much of the recent work in reducing wildland fire danger has occurred in the western and southeastern United States. However, high-risk areas do exist at the wildland–urban interface areas in the Northeast and very little work has been done to understand the fire management issues in this region. Therefore, this study used a survey of residents and landowners within the Plymouth Pine Barrens of southeastern Massachusetts to assess community members' perceptions of wildland fire risk and hazard reduction strategies. The research results indicate that residents have a low perception of wildland fire risk but support the use of fire hazard reduction strategies, including prescribed fire, mechanical removal of trees and brush, and construction of firebreaks. Previous experience with wildland fire was a major factor influencing respondents' perception of fire risk. Furthermore, participants' knowledge about specific fuel treatments positively influenced their support for those treatments. Overall, respondents believe that actions should be taken to reduce fire hazard within the study area and would like to be involved in the development of fire hazard reduction plans.

Assessing the benefits of reducing fire risk in the Wildland-urban interface: a contingent valuation approach

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy S. Fried ◽  
Greg J. Winter ◽  
J. Keith Gilless
Keyword(s):  
Contingent Valuation ◽  
Probability Model ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Property Taxes ◽  
Property Value ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Wild Fire ◽  
Property Loss

Wildland-urban interface (WUI) residents in Michigan were interviewed using a contingent valuation protocol to assess their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for incremental reductions in the risk of losing their homes to wild-fire. WTP was elicited using a probability model which segments the risk of structure loss into “public” and “private” components. Most respondents expressed positive WTP for publicly funded risk reduction activities. These respondents were characterized by tolerance for property taxes, perception of significant risk, high ranking of fire risk relative to other hazards, and high objective estimates of existing risk, and their WTP amounts were positively correlated with income and property value. Given that 97% of the respondents were insured against property loss, the large number of positive WTP responses suggests that substantial non-market and unreimbursed losses are experienced when structures are destroyed by wildfires.

scholarly journals The spatial domain of wildfire risk and response in the Wildland Urban Interface in Sydney, Australia

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 4539-4564
Author(s):  
O. F. Price ◽  
R. A. Bradstock
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Change Scenario ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface

Abstract. In order to quantify the risks from fire at the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), it is important to understand where fires occur and their likelihood of spreading to the WUI. For each of 999 fires in the Sydney region we calculated the distance between the ignition and the WUI, the fire weather and wind direction and whether it spread to the WUI. The likelihood of burning the WUI was analysed using binomial regression. Weather and distance interacted such that under mild weather conditions, the model predicted only a 5% chance that a fire starting more than 2.5 km from the interface would reach it, whereas when the conditions are extreme the predicted chance remained above 30% even at distances further than 10 km. Fires were more likely to spread to the WUI if the wind was from the west and in the western side of the region. We examined whether the management responses to wildfires are commensurate with risk by comparing the distribution of distance to the WUI of wildfires with roads and prescribed fires. Prescribed fires and roads were concentrated nearer to the WUI than wildfires as a whole, but further away than wildfires that burnt the WUI under extreme weather conditions (high risk fires). 79% of these high risk fires started within 2 km of the WUI, so there is some argument for concentrating more management effort near the WUI. By substituting climate change scenario weather into the statistical model, we predicted a small increase in the risk of fires spreading to the WUI, but the increase will be greater under extreme weather. This approach has a variety of uses, including mapping fire risk and improving the ability to match fire management responses to the threat from each fire. They also provide a baseline from which a cost-benefit analysis of complementary fire management strategies can be conducted.

Bark beetle outbreaks, wildfires and defensible space: how much area do we need to treat to protect homes and communities?

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen Aronson ◽  
Dominik Kulakowski
Keyword(s):  
Bark Beetle ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Defensible Space ◽  
Fuel Reduction ◽  
Surrounding Area ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Treat All

Extensive beetle outbreaks across western North American forests have spurred debates about how to best protect communities from wildfire. Previous work has found that fuels in the wildland–urban interface and especially in the defensible space (40-m radius) around structures are the most important determinants of the flammability of structures during wildfire. We: (1) examined the extent of outbreaks in the western US and their intersection with the wildland-urban interface and its surrounding area and (2) calculated the combined area of defensible space around all wildland-urban interface housing units in the western US. This analysis indicates that: (1) >98% of areas affected by outbreaks are in remote areas rather than in the wildland-urban interface and (2) in the context of limited resources and the goal of protecting homes and communities from wildfire, the area required to create defensible space around all homes in the wildland-urban interface of the western US (which effectively reduces fire risk to structures) is substantially less than that needed to treat all beetle-affected forests (which does not reduce fire risk to structures as effectively). Thus, focussing fuel-reduction treatments in the immediate vicinity of homes and communities rather than in remote beetle-affected forests would be more effective at reducing fire risk to those structures and would incur lower financial and ecological costs.

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