Planning for Wildfire in the Wildland-Urban Interface: A Guide for Western Communities
49 Urban Lawyer 207 (2017)
60 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2017
Date Written: July 20, 2017
Abstract
This article proposes a four-step framework for western communities to use in planning for wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). The cyclical planning framework is centered on the inter-agency Cohesive Strategy for wildfire, the first major effort to coordinate federal and state agency wildfire fighting with local government land use growth planning. The framework illustrates how federal plans focused on communities, such as the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), can provide the basis for local governments' efforts to regulative and incentivize wildfire planning from the community to the building scales; implement those regulations and incentives; and reevaluate the viability of those local plans as a substantial change or the passage of time require. The framework emphasizes a cyclical planning process and constant evaluation of wildfire planning tools' viability at the local level and as integrated into federal and state wildfire priorities.
Keywords: wildfire, CWPP, WUI, wildland-urban interface, wildland urban interface
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