Community Wildfire Protection Planning: The Importance of Framing, Scale, and Building Sustainable Capacity

Williams, Daniel; Jakes, Pamela J.; Burns, Sam; Cheng, Antony S.; Nelson, Kristen C.; Sturtevant, Victoria; Brummel, Rachel F.; Staychock, Emily; Souter, Stephanie G.

doi:10.5849/jof.12-001

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The operational effectiveness of these current wildfire mitigation planning efforts can be viewed from different perspectives. Some research studies suggest that CWPPs are successful when they engage residents and other stakeholders in efforts to address mutual concerns about wildland fire management, prioritizing hazardous fuel reduction projects and improving forest health . Other studies, however, have found that CWPPs have not resulted in sufficient reductions of risk as large wildfires have continued to burn into WUI areas that have been treated according to CWPPs .…”

Section: Current Gaps In Wildfire Mitigation Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current CWPP boundaries are generally defined by a wide range of administrative or political boundaries (e.g., fire protection districts, neighborhoods, towns, multiple towns, entire counties) that are potentially unrelated to the scale of wildfire risk transmission to communities and often to social factors relevant to risk mitigation (Fig. ) . This spatial scale mismatch between planning boundaries and the landscape scale of ecological conditions and processes has been widely discussed as a barrier to natural resource planning, particularly conservation .…”

Section: Current Gaps In Wildfire Mitigation Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some research studies suggest that CWPPs are successful when they engage residents and other stakeholders in efforts to address mutual concerns about wildland fire management, prioritizing hazardous fuel reduction projects and improving forest health. (15,32) Other studies, however, have found that CWPPs have not resulted in sufficient reductions of risk as large wildfires have continued to burn into WUI areas that have been treated according to CWPPs. (36,37) Growing wildfire losses within the WUI following substantial investments in planning and mitigation would seem to indicate the existence of potential problems and unrealized expectations for risk mitigation programs.…”

Section: Current Gaps In Wildfire Mitigation Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically, objective (or technical) approaches to risk assessment (i.e., risk analysis) focus on statistical estimation of the probability and magnitude of adverse events, defining magnitude on the basis of economic, ecological, or social impacts . Alternative social approaches to risk assessment for mitigation planning have involved defining people's risk perceptions based on qualitative social processes such as identifying community values exposed to wildfire . A shortcoming of these parallel efforts is that these risk mitigation subsystems are often disconnected in planning frameworks because frameworks lack recognition of the different temporal and spatial scales at which biophysical and social processes operate (i.e., are mismatched) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(5,10,11) Alternative social approaches to risk assessment for mitigation planning have involved defining people's risk perceptions based on qualitative social processes such as identifying community values exposed to wildfire. (12)(13)(14)(15) A shortcoming of these parallel efforts is that these risk mitigation subsystems are often disconnected in planning frameworks because frameworks lack recognition of the different temporal and spatial scales at which biophysical and social processes operate (i.e., are mismatched). (16,17) For example, in fire-prone systems, from the perspective of individuals, large wildfires are a rare event, making accurate risk perception difficult.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coupling the Biophysical and Social Dimensions of Wildfire Risk to Improve Wildfire Mitigation Planning

2015

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We describe recent advances in biophysical and social aspects of risk and their potential combined contribution to improve mitigation planning on fire-prone landscapes. The methods and tools provide an improved method for defining the spatial extent of wildfire risk to communities compared to current planning processes. They also propose an expanded role for social science to improve understanding of community-wide risk perceptions and to predict property owners' capacities and willingness to mitigate risk by treating hazardous fuels and reducing the susceptibility of dwellings. In particular, we identify spatial scale mismatches in wildfire mitigation planning and their potential adverse impact on risk mitigation goals. Studies in other fire-prone regions suggest that these scale mismatches are widespread and contribute to continued wildfire dwelling losses. We discuss how risk perceptions and behavior contribute to scale mismatches and how they can be minimized through integrated analyses of landscape wildfire transmission and social factors that describe the potential for collaboration among landowners and land management agencies. These concepts are then used to outline an integrated socioecological planning framework to identify optimal strategies for local community risk mitigation and improve landscape-scale prioritization of fuel management investments by government entities.

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Section: Current Gaps In Wildfire Mitigation Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Gaps In Wildfire Mitigation Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Gaps In Wildfire Mitigation Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coupling the Biophysical and Social Dimensions of Wildfire Risk to Improve Wildfire Mitigation Planning

2015

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Exploring the identification and use of socially defined indicators to monitor local environmental change in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona

Cannon,

Edgeley

2024

Reg Environ Change

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Matching the scales of planning and environmental risk: an evaluation of Community Wildfire Protection Plans in the western US

Hamilton,

Evers,

Nielsen-Pincus

et al. 2024

Reg Environ Change

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Theory predicts that effective environmental governance requires that the scales of management account for the scales of environmental processes. A good example is community wildfire protection planning. Plan boundaries that are too narrowly defined may miss sources of wildfire risk originating at larger geographic scales whereas boundaries that are too broadly defined dilute resources. Although the concept of scale (mis)matches is widely discussed in literature on risk mitigation as well as environmental governance more generally, rarely has the concept been rigorously quantified. We introduce methods to address this limitation, and we apply our approach to assess scale matching among Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) in the western US. Our approach compares two metrics: (1) the proportion of risk sources encompassed by planning jurisdictions (sensitivity) and (2) the proportion of area in planning jurisdictions in which risk can originate (precision). Using data from 852 CWPPs and a published library of 54 million simulated wildfires, we demonstrate a trade-off between sensitivity and precision. Our analysis reveals that spatial scale match—the product of sensitivity and precision—has an n-shaped relationship with jurisdiction size and is maximal at approximately 500 km2. Bayesian multilevel models further suggest that functional scale match—via neighboring, nested, and overlapping planning jurisdictions—may compensate for low sensitivity. This study provides a rare instance of a quantitative framework to measure scale match in environmental planning and has broad implications for risk mitigation as well as in other environmental governance settings.

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Community Wildfire Protection Planning: The Importance of Framing, Scale, and Building Sustainable Capacity

Cited by 32 publications

References 12 publications

Coupling the Biophysical and Social Dimensions of Wildfire Risk to Improve Wildfire Mitigation Planning

Coupling the Biophysical and Social Dimensions of Wildfire Risk to Improve Wildfire Mitigation Planning

Exploring the identification and use of socially defined indicators to monitor local environmental change in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona

Matching the scales of planning and environmental risk: an evaluation of Community Wildfire Protection Plans in the western US

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