Classifying Wildfire Risk at the Building Scale in the Wildland‐Urban Interface: Applying Spatial Video Approaches to Los Angeles County

Abstract

AbstractContinued development in the wildland‐urban interface presents several challenges with regards annual wildfire risk. One of those challenges is how to mitigate against this hazard. This paper will present a method for fine scale data collection that can be used to inform mitigation efforts by identifying spatial patterns of within neighborhood wildfire vulnerability. These visual data are used to develop fire risk classification maps for seven communities in three cities of Los Angeles County. Each of these test locations has been selected in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Fire Department due to the combination of a previous burn history, but no wildfire in the past 20 years. A spatial video system is used to capture aspects of the home which are traditionally thought to increase risk within the ignition zone. The resulting maps not only illustrate risk in association with proximity to vegetation at the border of communities, but also how variation in home vulnerability results in some interior properties being at‐risk to firebrands. The paper describes how spatial video data can be used to enhance current wildfire simulation efforts, especially evacuation scenarios, while an accompanying geonarrative by ride‐along community stakeholders could provide place specific insight on behavior.