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Project ID: 07-1-6-11

Year: 2007

Date Started: 06/04/2007

Date Completed: 10/28/2011

Title: Tradeoffs in Fire Hazard vs. Societal Benefits in Wildland-Urban Interface Communities

Project Proposal Abstract: Paradoxically, vegetation is both an asset and a liability to residents living in the wildland-urban interface. The same vegetation that provides both tangible and intangible benefits to society is regularly prone to burn with great intensity and destruction. Therefore, great emphasis is regularly given to vegetation clearance to reduce wildfire risk. However, while fuel reduction treatments may moderate fire risk to residents living in the wildland-urban interface, they will simultaneously impact societal benefits such as air pollution removal and home energy savings that vegetation provides. To investigate this seeming quandary, the proposed research will quantify potential fire behavior (fireline intensity, rate of spread, etc.) versus multiple societal benefits (air pollution removal, energy savings, carbon sequestration, etc.) that vegetation provides in treated and untreated brush- and forest-dominated wildland-urban interface communities. The UFORE (Urban Forest Effects) model will be used to assess societal benefits while various fire behavior prediction systems, including FARSITE, Nexus, and the Fire & Fuels Extension of the Forest Vegetation Simulator will be utilized to assess potential fire behavior across a given landscape for multiple combinations of vegetative composition and structure, weather, and topography. The results of this research will aid land managers and community planners in developing the best strategy for managing vegetation in California's wildland-urban interface.

Principal Investigator: Christopher A. Dicus

Agency/Organization: California Polytechnic State University

Branch or Dept: Natural Resources Management Department

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Federal Cooperator	David R. Weise	Forest Service	PSW-Forest Fire Lab-Riverside
Federal Fiscal Representative	Jackie Rountree	Forest Service	PSW-Pacific Southwest Research Station

Project Locations

Consortium

California

Northwest

Level	State	Agency	Unit
STATE	CA	FS	ALL

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	8314	Refereed Publication	Predicted Fire Behavior and Societal Benefits in Three Eastern Sierra Nevada Vegetation Communities
	7781	Invited Paper/Presentation	The Paradox of Vegetative Fire Risk Versus Societal Benefits in a Southwestern Wildland-Urban Interface Community
	9034	Invited Paper/Presentation	U.S. Fire Disasters: Lessons Learned (and Quickly Forgotten)
	9037	Invited Paper/Presentation	Long-Term Simulated Wildfire Behavior and Carbon Emissions Following Fuel Treatments in the Klamath Mountains, USA
	9031	Invited Paper/Presentation	A Methodology to Evaluate Fire Hazard Gains vs. Environmental Losses After Fuel Treatments in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	9030	Invited Paper/Presentation	A Holistic Framework to Sustainably Manage the Wildland-Urban Interface
	9028	Invited Paper/Presentation	Fire Down Under: The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Tragic
	9020	Invited Paper/Presentation	Impacts to Fire Risk vs. Environmental Factors After Treating Fuels in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	7783	Invited Paper/Presentation	Planning for Fire in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	9027	Invited Paper/Presentation	Fire Down Under: The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Tragic
	9026	Invited Paper/Presentation	Impacts to Fire Risk vs. Environmental Factors After Treating Fuels in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	9025	Invited Paper/Presentation	Impacts to Fire Risk vs. Environmental Factors After Treating Fuels in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	9021	Invited Paper/Presentation	Shelter-in-Place in the United States: An Historical Perspective
	9505	MS Thesis	Effects of Wildland-Urban Interface Fuel Treatments on Potential Fire Treatments on Potential Fire Behavior and Ecosystem Services in the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains of California (C. Hamma)
	9036	MS Thesis	Effects of Wildland Urban Interface Fuel Treatments on Fire Behavior and Ecosystem Services in the Klamath Mountains of California (J. Large)
	9035	Conference/Symposia/Workshop	Applications of the Australian Fire Experience for the United States
	9023	Poster	Evaluating Fire Hazard Gains vs. Environmental Losses After Fuel Treatments in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	9032	Poster	Impacts to Fire Behavior and Ecosystem Services Following Fuel Treatments in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	9038	Poster	Effects of Landscape-Level Fuel Treatments on Carbon Emissions and Storage Over a 50-Year Cycle
	9033	Poster	Effects of Landscape-Level Fuel Treatments on Burn Probability and Fire Severity in the Klamath Mountains
	9022	Poster	Evaluating Fire Hazard Gains vs. Environmental Losses After Fuel Treatments in the Wildland-Urban Interface
	7784	Progress Report	This is a progress report submitted for FY08.
	8317	Progress Report	Progress Report: FY09

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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