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Resilient development

Resilient development integrates wildfire risk into the way communities are planned, built and managed, reducing exposure and vulnerability before disasters occur.

Preventing new development in the highest-risk areas, maintaining defensible space around settlements, protecting critical infrastructure and preserving natural buffers can all help reduce the likelihood that wildfires become catastrophic disasters.

Resilient building and mitigation practices are a cornerstone of this approach. Fire-resistant construction materials, ember-resistant design, appropriate roofing and ventilation systems, and the use of building codes tailored to wildfire hazards can significantly improve the survivability of homes and public infrastructure.

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Update
Building wildfire-resistant homes after disasters will save billions

Thousands of Americans lose their homes to wildfires every year, triggering a cascade of economic consequences. Rebuilding to wildfire-resistant standards offers a chance to reduce the risk of future disasters.

Headwaters Economics
A blazing wildfire starts to encroach on residential areas in Braga, Portugal
Update
We design cities and buildings for earthquakes and floods — we need to do the same for wildfires

Despite the growing impacts of extreme weather events, including prolonged droughts and increasing temperatures, cities and homes continue to be built in likely paths of destructive wildfires.

Conversation Media Group, the
Forest Wild fire near houses on Portugal Summer
Update
A Colorado couple invested in wildfire protection for their home. It paid off

Months before a wildfire, a couple had taken steps to prevent fires from reaching their house.

Yale Climate Connections
Update
What does a wildfire-resistant house look like?

With wildfires happening more often and burning more area, homes need to be “hardened” to make them more fire-resistant.

Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc.
Update
How the Eaton Fire destroyed a delicate truce over Altadena’s future

A plan to build badly needed housing — and prevent future fires — may soon go up in smoke.

Grist Magazine
Update
More than half of Australia’s homes were built before fire standards came in. Here are 5 ways to retrofit them

More than half (55%) of Australia's homes were built 30 or more years ago - before national standards for fire resilience were introduced. The good news: you can take action to make older homes more resilient.

Conversation Media Group, the
Cover
Documents and publications
Vulnerability of structures and infrastructure to wildfires: A perspective into assessment and mitigation strategies

This report examines the aftermath of increasing wildfire frequency and intensity, focusing on the vulnerability of structures like human settlements and infrastructure, and the associated losses, using both historical and recent events as references.

npj Natural Hazards (Nature)
Research briefs
The impact of land use planning on wildfire risk: a study in Southern California

In a study, authors modeled three different development scenarios in San Diego, US, to investigate how land use planning can influence the future probability of housing loss due to wildfires.

California Yimby
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