FIRE EVACUATION MODELLING OF A CANADIAN WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE COMMUNITY

Fire in the Wildland–Urban Interface

In this chapter we provide an overview of the socio-economic and ecological effects and trends of wildfire in the WUI, methods for assessing wildfire risk in the WUI, approaches to managing the wildfire problem including fuels management, home construction and design, and community action programs. This overview is combined with two case studies analyzing wildfire risk and the use of prescribed...

Wildland Fire Suppression and Land Development in the Wildland/Urban Interface

Defining the Wildland–Urban Interface

from the ability to locate and compare the WUI in different states and regions. To support this aspect of WUI management and strategic planning, we created a map of the WUI across the lower 48 states (Radeloff et al. 2005b). Unlike a community-level WUI map that can be enriched by using detailed local data, this “big picture” national map required nationally consistent data and a single standar...

Implementation of National Fire Plan treatments near the wildland-urban interface in the western United States.

Because of increasing concern about the effects of catastrophic wildland fires throughout the western United States, federal land managers have been engaged in efforts to restore historical fire behavior and mitigate wildfire risk. During the last 5 years (2004-2008), 44,000 fuels treatments were implemented across the western United States under the National Fire Plan (NFP). We assessed the ex...

Landscape Dynamics in the Wildland–Urban Interface

The wildland–urban interface represents landscape change—changes brought about by urbanization, by shifts in forest management, and altered disturbance regimes, each having ecological, social, and economic ramifications. In this chapter, I will focus on some of the ecological ramifications associated with landscape change, primarily forest fragmentation and deforestation, resulting from urbaniz...