Keyword: wildland urban interface

Wildfire exposure to the wildland urban interface in the western US

Predicting wildfire disasters presents a major challenge to the field of risk science, especially when fires propagate long distances through diverse fuel types and complex terrain. A good example is in the western US where large tracts of public lands routinely experience large fires that spread from remote wildlands into developed areas and cause structure loss and fatalities.

Incorporating social diversity into wildfire management: Proposing 'pathways' for fire adaptation

Existing research suggests that adoption or development of various wildfire management strategies may differ across communities.

Cross-boundary wildfire and community exposure: A framework and application in the western U.S.

In this report we provide a framework for assessing cross-boundary wildfire exposure and a case study application in the western U.S. The case study provides detailed mapping and tabular decision support materials for prioritizing fuel management investments aimed at reducing wildfire exposure to communities located proximal to national forests. The work was motivated by a number of factors, including a request from U.S.

Tradeoffs between US national forest harvest targets and fuel management to reduce wildfire transmission to the wildland urban interface

US public land management agencies are faced with multiple, often conflicting objectives to meet management targets and produce a wide range of ecosystem services expected from public lands. One example is managing the growing wildfire risk to human and ecological values while meeting programmatic harvest targets for economic outputs mandated in agency budgets.

Assessing wildland fire risk transmission to communities in northern Spain

We assessed potential economic losses and transmission to residential houses from wildland fires in a rural area of central Navarra (Spain). Expected losses were quantified at the individual structure level (n = 306) in 14 rural communities by combining fire model predictions of burn probability and fire intensity with susceptibility functions derived from expert judgement.

Recovery and adaptation after wildfire on the Colorado Front Range (2010–12)

Following the loss of homes to wildfire, when risk has been made apparent, homeowners must decide whether to rebuild, and choose materials and vegetation, while local governments guide recovery and rebuilding. As wildfires are smaller and more localised than other disasters, it is unclear if recovery after wildfire results in policy change and adaptation, decreasing assets at risk, or if recovery encourages reinvestment in hazard-prone areas.

Assessing the impacts of federal forest planning on wildfire risk-mitigation in the Pacific Northwest, USA

We analyzed the impact of amenity and biodiversity protection as mandated in national forest plans on the implementation of hazardous fuel reduction treatments aimed at protecting the wildland urban interface (WUI) and restoring fire resilient forests. We used simulation modeling to delineate areas on national forests that can potentially transmit fires to adjacent WUI.

A collaborative fire hazard reduction/ecosystem restoration stewardship project in a Montana mixed ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir/western larch wildland urban interface

Forest Service managers and researchers designed and evaluated alternative disturbance-based fire hazard reduction/ecosystem restoration treatments in a greatly altered low-elevation ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir/western larch wildland urban interface.