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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
Australia faces 'massive' rethink to prepare for long-term bushfires and air pollution

Australia must retrofit houses to make them heat and smoke-proof in the face of bushfires and air pollution.

Guardian, the (UK)
Documents and publications
Urban planning: historical changes integrating bushfire risk management in Victoria

This paper summarises the key changes in urban planning and building regulations that were introduced in Victoria over time to minimise the effects of bushfire on settlements. These have generally occurred within four main eras, being the independent

Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR)
Documents and publications
Fire risk assessment of combustible exterior cladding using a collective numerical database

Recent high-profile building fires involving highly-combustible external cladding panels in

Australia as well as Dubai, China, and the United Kingdom have created a heightened awareness by

the public, government, and commercial entities to act on the

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Update
Bans on rebuilding in disaster-prone areas ignore homeowners preferences – raising costs works better

As California's wildfire season intensifies, residents want to ban building in areas of high risk, while homeowners want to rebuild in the same place hit by disaster.

Conversation Media Group, the
Research briefs
USA: Researchers document the effect of pre-fire mitigation on structure losses during 2017 Thomas Fire

Pre-fire mitigation work undertaken in Montecito, CA was a crucial factor that helped reduce the number of homes destroyed by a fire in late 2017. A report has taken a closer look at fire adaptation measures and how they affected the outcome of the fire.

Wildfire Today
Update
Wildfire: Managing a peak peril

It is becoming clear that wildfire risk must be managed much more actively by the (re)insurance industry, with more advanced modeling, analytics and research. Here is a webinar entitled “Navigating Wildfire Risk Catastrophe Analytics for a New Peak Peril”, presented by the article author together with a research engineer from the Insurance Institute for Building and Home Safety (IBHS).

Risk Management Solutions
Update
USA: Millions of homes are underinsured against natural disasters as construction costs keep rising

Extreme weather, from floods to wildfires to high-category hurricanes, is causing ever more damage to neighborhoods. Now, new research shows that much of the nation’s housing stock may not be sufficiently insured against these disasters.

CNBC
Update
USA: Analysis - Safety rules give homes better chance in wildfires

In March, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history has emphasised the need for building codes that protect the state's fire-prone regions. The building codes work - yet despite this lesson, California may end up falling short in its effort to protect homes from the next wildfire.

Associated Press
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