Is Experience the Best Teacher? Knowledge, Perceptions, and Awareness of Wildfire Risk (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Multisite Qualitative Comparison of Community Wildfire Risk Perceptions
2012
It is increasingly important that natural resource managers understand residents' perceptions of wildfire risks, particularly as the wildland-urban interface expands. Risk perceptions influence resident risk reduction strategies that are crucial to effective hazard management. This study compares key informant responses about community wildfire risk from five areas of the eastern United States. Perceptions are influenced by ecological characteristics as well as economic and sociodemographic factors. These include, e.g., the proliferation of low-density housing and second home development, local values and norms, and the strength of public services. Despite federal designation of wildfire risk, most informants said their communities were relatively unconcerned about wildfire. In some places, informants noted awareness of wildfire but lack of concern. Findings illustrate how social and cultural characteristics of participants' communities intersected with biophysical elements of wildfire to attenuate risk perceptions. Implications for community wildfire risk mitigation policy are discussed.
Journal of Environmental Management, 2009
An important policy question receiving considerable attention concerns the risk perception-risk mitigation process that guides how individuals choose to address natural hazard risks. This question is considered in the context of wildfire. We analyze the factors that influence risk reduction behaviors by homeowners living in the wildland-urban interface. The factors considered are direct experience, knowledge of wildfire risk, locus of responsibility, fulltime/seasonal status, and self-efficacy. Survey data from three homeowner associations in the western U.S. are used to estimate the direct and indirect effects of this relationship. Our results indicate that the effects of knowledge and locus of responsibility are mediated by homeowners' risk perceptions. We also find that beliefs of self-efficacy and fulltime/ seasonal status have a direct influence on risk reduction behaviors. Finally, we find, surprisingly, that direct experience with wildfire does not directly influence the risk perception-risk mitigation process.
2000
The Public and Wildland Fire Management for managers can be applied in other regions where higher density urban and suburban interface communities abut high fuel-hazard forests. Public education and outreach efforts about fuel-hazard reduction planning need to be increased well in advance of changing forest management. Because our study found that those who were more familiar with techniques, such as prescribed fire, supported them more strongly, managers need to get the word out early about the benefits and risks associated with each technique. Multiple strategies for reaching the public should be considered, including newspapers, television, and radio. After the initial outreach, demonstration projects, such as a small-scale prescribed burn, can be used to increase the public' s experience with new management techniques. Demonstration projects are the perfect setting for teaching the public about the need to manage the forest. Wildland-urban interface communities are different, even in the same region, so managers need to tailor implementation strategies to the particular area. For example, in higher density, less natural
Climate Risk Management, 2021
The health impacts of wildfire smoke are an important and growing global issue, as extreme wildfire events are expected to increase in frequency and intensity throughout this century due to climate change. Research into individual protective health decision-making can elucidate how wildfire smoke exposure contributes to adverse health outcomes and aid in public health interventions to mitigate risks. In this study we investigate the role of psychological factors (threat and efficacy perceptions) and social processes (social norms and social support) in shaping protective behavior in response to wildfire smoke. Through semi-structured interviews of forty-five individuals in Northern California, we explore perceptions of threat and efficacy, social processes, and protective behaviors in response to wildfire smoke events between 2018 and 2020. We found that for many participants sensory experiences and engagement with wildfire smoke information were instrumental in forming perceptions of threat and efficacy. Three themes related to social processes emerged: interpreting information together, protecting vulnerable others, and questioning protective actions. Through these themes we show how social norms and social support interact in complex, non-linear ways to influence threat and efficacy perceptions, and directly affect protective health behavior. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework of wildfire smoke protective behavior. This study contributes to a growing body of knowledge within the disaster risk and protective health literatures related to wildfire smoke response. Our findings demonstrate how the study of psychological factors and social processes during natural hazards, like wildfire smoke events, is essential to understanding individual protective health decision-making pathways and ultimately, to developing a more comprehensive view of how individual actions affect exposure.
2011
As the incidence of devastating fires rises, managing the risk posed by these fires has become critical. This report provides important information to examine the ways that different groups or disaster subcultures develop the mentalities or perceived realities that affect their views and responses concerning risk and disaster preparedness. Fire risk beliefs and attitudes of individuals and groups from four geographic areas in the Southwest (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Region 3, Arizona and New Mexico) surrounding the Kaibab, Tonto, Santa Fe, and Lincoln National Forests are presented. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we collected information from three distinct groups: general public, informed lay public, and local experts. In addition, personal interviews were conducted with a group of policy experts in the science of wildfires and climate change. A primary finding indicates that all of the groups that we interviewed expressed a strong desire for land managers to manage the public lands proactively in order to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. However, respondents expressed different preferences regarding the management approach that should be used. One important observation was that respondents in each of the three distinct respondent groups prioritized their preferred means of communication differently.
Trying Not to Get Burned: Understanding Homeowners’ Wildfire Risk–Mitigation Behaviors
Environmental Management, 2012
Three causes have been identified for the spiraling cost of wildfire suppression in the United States: climate change, fuel accumulation from past wildfire suppression, and development in fire-prone areas. Because little is likely to be performed to halt the effects of climate on wildfire risk, and because fuel-management budgets cannot keep pace with fuel accumulation let alone reverse it, changing the behaviors of existing and potential homeowners in fire-prone areas is the most promising approach to decreasing the cost of suppressing wildfires in the wildland-urban interface and increasing the odds of homes surviving wildfire events. Wildfire education efforts encourage homeowners to manage their property to decrease wildfire risk. Such programs may be more effective with a better understanding of the factors related to homeowners' decisions to undertake wildfire risk-reduction actions. In this study, we measured whether homeowners had implemented 12 wildfire risk-mitigation measures in 2 Colorado Front Range counties. We found that wildfire information received from local volunteer fire departments and county wildfire specialists, as well as talking with neighbors about wildfire, were positively associated with higher levels of mitigation. Firsthand experience in the form of preparing for or undertaking an evacuation was also associated with a higher level of mitigation. Finally, homeowners who perceived higher levels of wildfire risk on their property had undertaken higher levels of wildfire-risk mitigation on their property.
Local Ecological Knowledge and Fire Management: What Does the Public Understand?
Journal of Forestry, 2016
As fire management agencies seek to implement more flexible fire management strategies, local understanding and support for these strategies become increasingly important. One issue associated with implementing more flexible fire management strategies is educating local populations about fire management and identifying what local populations know or do not know related to fire management. This study used survey data from three 2010 wildland fires to understand how ecological knowledge and education level affected fire management perception and understanding. Results indicated that increased accuracy in identifying ecological conditions was associated with higher proficiencies in the identification of fire management strategies used for wildfires. Education levels were not significantly related to public perception of fire management but were related to significant differences in accurately identifying ecological conditions. Results suggest that education may play a mediating role in understanding complex wildfire issues but is not associated with a better understanding of fire management.
International Journal of Wildland Fire, 2014
In an effort to reduce wildfire risk to community members, researchers and practitioners have sought to identify the factors that are most effective in motivating community members to engage in preparatory behaviours. Quantitative research in this area has been hampered, however, by a lack of consistency in, and validation of household wildfire preparedness assessments. Consequences have included a difficulty in comparing results across quantitative studies, a poor collective understanding of how existing preparedness assessments were developed and an inability to ascertain how specific preparedness actions are tied to householders’ responses to wildfire. We propose to resolve these issues by (1) presenting a definition of wildfire preparedness for adoption as the standard in quantitative studies, (2) developing a typology of wildfire preparedness that distinguishes between household wildfire goals (i.e. safe evacuation, effective active defence and improving the fire resistance of ...