%0 Journal Article
%T Understanding the Role of Planners in Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation
%A Menka Bihari
%A Elisabeth M. Hamin
%A Robert L. Ryan
%J ISRN Forestry
%D 2012
%R 10.5402/2012/253028
%X As wildfires affect more residential areas across the United States, the need for collaboration between land managers, federal agencies, neighbours, and local governments has become more pressing especially in the context of the wildland-urban interface. Previous research has not focused much on land-use plannersĄŻ role in wildfire mitigation. This paper provides information on how land-use planners can assist communities in learning to live with wildfire risk through planning, preparedness, and mitigation efforts in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Based on interviews with land-use planners, forest planners, and local emergency management officials, we identified a range of tools that could be used for improving wildfire preparedness and mitigation initiatives in the WUI, but also found that planners felt that they lacked the regulatory authority to use these tenaciously. The paper also identifies a range of possible actions that would contribute towards safer building practices in the interface communities. 1. Introduction Historically, land-use planning has addressed hazards like flooding, hurricanes, or earthquakes [1¨C3], and wildland fire risk through building codes, ordinances, and response services. With more and more people choosing to live in fire-prone wildland-urban interface (WUI) than ever before, wildfire hazards have become an important concern for land-use planning [4¨C7]. There is little theoretical question that proper land-use controls and site designs can mitigate (reduce) the risk of wildfire damages. Nevertheless, the fact is that in the United States, land development is not being steered away from the high wildfire hazard settings, nor are sites being adequately designed and maintained to reduce the hazards [8]. As we explore in this study, the implementation challenge lies in two areas: first, much of what planners could potentially control (development regulations, zoning, etc.) has not been defined clearly and effectively with respect to wildfire risk, and substantial residential development continues to occur in wildfire-prone areas. Secondly, managing these wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas requires significant collaboration across jurisdictional levels and geographies. For instance, key forest management decisions for lands surrounding WUI community are typically made by national and state forest agencies, while the zoning that allows private homes is managed at county offices often many miles from the interface community, making meaningful collaboration rather challenging. Collaboration and policy coordination across
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.forestry/2012/253028/