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Designing Communities for Wildfire Resilience

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Designing Communities for Wildfire Resilience Designing Communities for Wildfire Resilience DESIGNING COMMUNITIES FOR WILDFIRE RESILIENCE Introduction: California Wildfires 4 AUGUST 2021 Chapter 1: Wildlands 21 Guideline 1.1: Inter-Agency Collaboration 24 Guideline 1.2: Update Power Lines 26 Every year in California, wildfires devastate massive sections of Guideline 1.3: Decentralize Power 27 the state’s landscape and affect the lives of countless people. Guideline 1.4: Prioritize Prescribed Burns 29 Millions of dollars are spent fighting fires, and additional billions Guideline 1.6: Mandatory Fire Upgrades 31 are spent repairing fire-related damage. Yet most wildfires Guideline 1.6: Bury Power Lines 32 are caused by human activity and exacerbated by mitigation guidelines that can vary significantly between jurisdictions. Chapter 2: Urban Areas 34 We believe the issue of wildfire must be addressed in a more Guideline 2.1: Increase City Density 38 comprehensive manner and include forest management Guideline 2.2: No Re-Build Zones 39 techniques, urban design strategies and building design criteria. Guideline 2.3: City Design Requirements 41 Guideline 2.4: Fire Resilient City Edge 43 Therefore, the purpose of this document is to present wildfire Guideline 2.5: Reform Grid Infrastructure 45 guidelines that provide mitigation measures at three scales: the region, the city, and the building. To achieve this purpose, the Chapter 3: Buildings 47 document provides: Guideline 3.1: WUI Visual Communication 49 Guideline 3.2: Design for Fire 50 ↪ An overview of wildfires in California and their causes. Guideline 3.3: Fire Conscious Design 51 ↪ Historical data and trends related to wildfires. Guideline 3.4: Fire-Resistant Upgrades 54 ↪ 18 guidelines for managing wildfire vulnerability at three Guideline 3.5: Geometry Requirements 56 scales of application: region, city, and building. Guideline 3.6: Active Fire Suppression 58 Guideline 3.7: District Power 60 We hope this document provides an introduction to, and the inspiration for, more enlightened wildfire mitigation strategies Chapter 4: Conclusions 62 in California. References 65 WILDFIRE DESIGN GUIDELINES 2021 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WILDLANDS URBAN AREAS BUILDINGS The number of wildfires has been trending upwards over the past 1.1 Promote inter-agency 2.1 Increase density in cities to reduce 3.1 Strengthen visual communication decade. California has been breaking its previous records for collaboration between federal, the number of people threatened by tools for Wildland-Urban Interface number of acres burned, number of fires, number of deaths, and state, and local governments. wildfires. (WUI) codes. number of structures destroyed in the last three years. 1.2 Update outdated power lines and 2.2 Implement no re-build zones in high 3.2 Design individual buildings and The United States policy to extinguish all fires immediately, equipment in lower risk zones and fire risk areas to reduce destroyed properties to accommodate fire and add more monitoring systems structures from wildfires. evacuation. coupled with more frequent droughts and increased dry seasons throughout California. due to climate change, have combined to make forests and wildlands extremely vulnerable to fire. In addition to this, the U.S. 1.3 Decentralize power sources in 2.3 Implement city design requirements 3.3 Provide affordable, adaptable, has approximately 15 million people moving into the Wildland- high risk zones. for fire staging, breaks, and egress. high-quality fire resistant building designs to facilitate a new regime of Urban Interface each decade, equating to approximately 8 million fire conscious construction. new homes; human intervention in the Wildland-Urban Interface zone is the number one cause of wildfires. 1.4 Prioritize and increase prescribed 2.4 Require fire resilient buildings at the 3.4 Incentivize fire-resistant upgrades burns in high risk areas. city edge. for High Hazard Zones. Reducing the impact of wildfires on our communities and our planet will take coordinated effort from numerous stakeholders. 1.5 Require mandatory fire resistant 2.5 Reform the electric grid 3.5 Require strict building geometry Based on data from various sources, there are specific building and residential infrastructure. requirements for new construction landscape upgrades. in WUI zones to limit the Venturi interventions we can take now at multiple scales. effect. ↪ Improve communication between stakeholders. 1.6 Bury new power lines where 3.6 Implement active fire suppression ↪ Adopt technologies that allow us to coexist with fire. feasible within highest wildfire in WUI zones. hazard zones. ↪ Be intentional about where we build. 3.7 Modify the delivery of power to A summary of our recommended wildfire design guidelines buildings. is indicated to the right and explained further in the following chapters. INTRODUCTION California Wildfires INTRODUCTION Smoke blots out the sun in major cities explore data regarding wildfires, and recommending guidelines for across the world, sometimes hundreds and analyze how governments, fire designing cities and other urbanized Every year wildfires get of miles from the fires themselves. departments, cities, architects, and areas for wildfires. Billions of dollars are spent fighting citizens can better design for coexisting worse. From Australia wildfires each year. Lives are lost when with wildfires. This is by In the third chapter, we zoom into the wildfires blaze across communities no means comprehensive, but intends Building scale, and develop several overnight. Homes are destroyed. to continue the conversations that guidelines addressing issues that have to the US Pacific Coast, Entire cities are evacuated. Immense are already occurring across different arisen during our investigations. amounts of carbon are released into fields of expertise and provoke the atmosphere. As climate change interdisciplinary collaboration and The worsening and lengthening wildfire more severe wildfire makes dry summers drier, decreases innovation. season is not a problem for just fire the typical annual snow pack, and fighters, city planners, architects, seasons have become increases high wind events, it’s hard to In the introduction, we explore data or citizens who live and build in high see the trend reversing itself anytime on recent California Wildfires, to set hazard fire zones; All stakeholders need soon. the framework for the trends that have to communicate with each other, learn commonplace. developed over the past decades. Even from each other’s expertise, and apply In the past, a fire department’s goal was though our data focuses on California, each others knowledge, to improve the to extinguish fires as soon as possible. we believe that there are parallels with situation in the coming decades. An architect’s goal was to design a other states and countries that have building that would serve its client’s been experiencing increasing numbers needs. Now fire departments must of wildfires each year. balance the need to protect property and life with the needs of a complex In the first chapter, we focus on evolving ecosystem: an environment Wildlands, and how long term and where periodic fire is needed for overall short term strategies can significantly health and longevity. Architects must improve the effects wildfires have on balance the needs of the client with the the state and communities each year. impacts of climate change, the safety of the community, and recurring wildfires. In the second chapter, we analyze Throughout this design manual, we Urban Areas, identifying specific issues CALIFORNIAHEADING WILDFIRES Since pre-colonial times, fire has played an active role in the shaping of California’s natural landscapes. For millennia, tribes across California and the world used small intentional burns to renew food sources, create preferable habitat for animals, and reduce the risk of large, dangerous wildfires. Early land management, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains, was shaped through the knowledge of traditional burning practices that harnessed fire as a tool that was necessary for survival. Image Credit: MariusLtu/istock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES For more than 100 years, U.S. policy was to immediately extinguish all wildfires and minimally manage the majority of federal and state forests. This has led to a dangerous buildup of fuel where wildfires spread further, faster, and are significantly harder to contain. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans Photo Credit: ZU_09/Digital Vision Vectors/Getty Images WILDFIRES A prolonged lapse in land management policies is leaving more acres of forests and development vulnerable. NEARLY 130 YEARS WITHOUT CONTROLLED BURNS 10,000 BC 1850 1880-1968 1968 1978 PRESENT Use of intentional burning by The US government passed the Supported by ecologists and Realizing that no new giant The Forest Service also While some state agencies have indigenous people to manage Act for the Government and conservationists, early National sequoias had grown in changed its fire policy to allow made prescribed burns a key forest and prevent large fires Protection of Indians which Forest Service considered California’s unburned forests, prescribed burning. part of their land management outlawed intentional burning in intentional burning to be the National Park Service policy, there is over 20 million California. destructive and contrary
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