Exploring the Influence of Local Social Context on Strategies for Achieving Fire Adapted Communities

Abstract

There is a growing recognition that the social diversity of communities at risk from wildland fire may necessitate divergent combinations of policies, programs and incentives that allow diverse populations to promote fire adapted communities (FACs). However, there have been few coordinated research efforts to explore the perceived utility and effectiveness of various options for FACs among residents, professionals, and local officials in disparate communities with different social contexts. The research presented here attempts to systematically explore the combination of local social factors that influence support for coordinated wildfire risk management across locations. We conducted 19 interactive focus groups across five communities spanning five Western U.S. states using a mixed-method design that allowed for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Results indicate a number of significant differences in effectiveness ratings for adaptation approaches across communities, including requirement of vegetation mitigations on private properties, fostering Firewise communities, and zoning efforts in fire-prone areas. We used qualitative data to help explain the differences between communities as a function of unique local social context operating in each location. We also compare our results with existing frameworks promoting community “archetypes” to evaluate their continued use in wildfire management planning or response.

Navigating the Wildfire–Pandemic Interface: Public Perceptions of COVID-19 and the 2020 Wildfire Season in Arizona

“…Our study sample frame focused on two populations that have recently experienced fire; therefore, their responses may be different from those of other WUI communities where fire has not occurred, or occurred more than two or three years ago. Numerous researchers highlight that WUI communities are socially diverse (e.g., [54,55]), and we hope that future research can advance understandings of how different WUI populations may respond and recover at the wildfire-pandemic interface. Additionally, both study areas are rural, and may not necessarily reflect how urban populations, or the population of Arizona more broadly, might respond to concurrent hazards.…”

“Us versus Them;” Local Social Fragmentation and Its Potential Effects on Building Pathways to Adapting to Wildfire

“…A discussion of adaptation in the WUI must begin with an acknowledgement of social complexity resulting from the many differences among WUI communities located across a diverse biophysical landscape [18,37,39]. Local social context is dependent on the various social, biophysical, and historical characteristics that are specific to a particular community [40]. Adding to the complexity is the fact that those characteristics are not stagnant, but rather are in a near-constant state of flux [14,23].…”

“…Research on social context and specific pathway approaches demonstrated, for example, that communities that are traditionally resource-dependent or working landscape communities [5] may have a better chance of reducing wildfire risk if they were given funds to self-organize volunteer firefighting and hazard mitigation capacity while a different type of community, formalized subdivisions, may require hired contractors or professionals to carry out these functions. Similarly, educational/outreach programs couched in formal scientific language may resonate among residents of a formal subdivision while messages framed in terms of the practical experience of longtime practitioners may find greater receptivity among more rural residents [1,13,40]. Just as each community type has pathways that have a better chance of succeeding, they also have barriers to success that are unique to their community type.…”

“…Examples of community-led governance include but are not limited to participation in voluntary programs such as Firewise, and informal practices such as peer pressure to ensure fuels on private property are adequately managed [38]. Those strategies have been identified as having meaningful and enduring impacts on adaptation at small, localized scales (e.g., community) [38,40]. Assessment of social characteristics and implementation of strategies designed to increase adaptive capacity of WUI populations is inherently interconnected with local social context and scale.…”

Half-Century Changes in LULC and Fire in Two Iberian Inner Mountain Areas

“…In particular, the understanding of the interconnections between fire regimes and landscape changes can inform fire managers on the likely effects of altering fire regimes on the landscape and inform landscape planners on the likely effect of altering landscapes on the fire regimes. The local impacts of different historical fire management policies, historical land management policies and historical protection guidelines, as well as the phenomena of the rural exodus and land abandonment in each of these two inner mountain areas are definitely worth to explore in order to better understand the disparity of fire occurrence in these two case study areas [14,49,89,128,129].…”