Urban Assets Research Articles

Design and Delivery of a Novel EQF Professional Profile in the Heritage Sector: The Approach of the South East Europe Territorial Cooperation Project “SAGITTARIUS”

SAGITTARIUS “Launching (g)local level cultural heritage entrepreneurship: strategies and tools to unite forces, safeguard the place, mobilize cultural values, deliver the experience”, is an ongoing Project within the SOUTH EAST EUROPE TRANSNATIONAL COOPERATION PROGRAMME 2007-2013, Priority 4.3 “Use of Cultural Values for Development”. SAGITTARIUS advances the socio-economic development of the territory in the Project Area by communicating the values of heritage to a wide range of different audiences from stakeholders to international visitors: from natural monuments and ecosystems to sites and collections, from the arts to traditions and handicrafts heritage is valued, protected, communicated and used with ecologic, economic and social profit. The aim of SAGITTARIUS is to effectively communicate cultural heritage values of 110 rural and urban assets across the Project intervention area ton on-captives audiences in an entertaining and participatory way. A novel EQF professional profile has been designed for basic interpretive skills addressing graduates form humanities, economy and architecture. The profile precedes an e-and in situ Course, ‘GOLDEN BOW’, aiming to facilitate knowledge transfer required to optimize understanding and assist the presentation of information in a manner that encourages learner activities, ensuring permanent results. The main objective is to create an educational tool to deliver professional skills in Heritage Interpretation and create a pool of certified individuals with increased capacities to use cultural values for development.

공공적 유휴공간 재생 계획과정의 특성에 관한 연구 -문화적 재생을 위한 공공 현상설계 프로젝트를 중심으로-

In Korea, several design competition have been conducted to revitalize the cultural function of some areas using under-used space. However, though such sites include public and urban assets inherently, these projects defined their boundary as an isolated architectural or landscape design. Hence, this study will clarify the differentiated design content and process for public regeneration of under-used space through analysis of the case-study. For this purpose, firstly, the public and urban assets of under-used space will be analyzed to prove that it should be handled with wider boundaries and perspectives. And then, this study will reveal the limitation of design contents and process of Korean design competitions linking to the regeneration of under-used space after analyzing several case studies. Lastly, some differentiated design inducements conducted by the City of Oslo for the each regeneration plan of under-used space will be deducted, focusing on the fact that those projects have been implemented in more urban and connected ways. As a result, this study is strongly aiming to insist that the revitalization of under-used space should not be implemented by advertising a poetic symbolism. Instead, it must be an practical integrated plan emphasizing the connectivity with surrounding environment and diverse plan.

Comparing Methods of Calculating Expected Annual Damage in Urban Pluvial Flood Risk Assessments

Estimating the expected annual damage (EAD) due to flooding in an urban area is of great interest for urban water managers and other stakeholders. It is a strong indicator for a given area showing how vulnerable it is to flood risk and how much can be gained by implementing e.g., climate change adaptation measures. This study identifies and compares three different methods for estimating the EAD based on unit costs of flooding of urban assets. One of these methods was used in previous studies and calculates the EAD based on a few extreme events by assuming a log-linear relationship between cost of an event and the corresponding return period. This method is compared to methods that are either more complicated or require more calculations. The choice of method by which the EAD is calculated appears to be of minor importance. At all three case study areas it seems more important that there is a shift in the damage costs as a function of the return period. The shift occurs approximately at the 10 year return period and can perhaps be related to the design criteria for sewer systems. Further, it was tested if the EAD estimation could be simplified by assuming a single unit cost per flooded area. The results indicate that within each catchment this may be a feasible approach. However the unit costs varies substantially between different case study areas. Hence it is not feasible to develop unit costs that can be used to calculate EAD, most likely because the urban landscape is too heterogeneous.

Research note: Urban street tree density and antidepressant prescription rates—A cross-sectional study in London, UK

Growing evidence suggests an association between access to urban greenspace and mental health and wellbeing. Street trees may be an important facet of everyday exposure to nature in urban environments, but there is little evidence regarding their role in influencing population mental health. In this brief report, we raise the issue of street trees in the nature-health nexus, and use secondary data sources to examine the association between the density of street trees (trees/km street) in London boroughs and rates of antidepressant prescribing. After adjustment for potential confounders, and allowing for unmeasured area-effects using Bayesian mixed effects models, we find an inverse association, with a decrease of 1.18 prescriptions per thousand population per unit increase in trees per km of street (95% credible interval 0.00, 2.45). This study suggests that street trees may be a positive urban asset to decrease the risk of negative mental health outcomes.

Generalized method to estimate value of urban assets for natural disaster risk assessment at the macro scale

Natural disasters can have a damaging effect on human society. To understand the magnitude of risk of a natural disaster at the macro scale, basic socioeconomic parameters such as population or gross domestic product (GDP) are often used as proxies to evaluate value of specific asset classes (e.g., urban assets, agricultural land, etc.). However, such information is not always available and it becomes a challenge to perform cost-benefit analysis of tailored strategies to protect an asset class from natural disaster risk. Recent studies showed the prospects of relating GDP and population to produced capital representing urban assets. However, the methods used in earlier studies are unclear and resulted in different outcomes that need further clarification and generalization. This study aims to demonstrate the potential of developing a more generalized method to characterize the relation between produced capital and basic socioeconomic parameters at the global scale. We include purchasing power parity (PPP) into the country GDP and produced capital data, respectively. We develop a more generalized method that incorporates the uncertainty range to quantify the produced capital. This is an improvement from previous studies. The new approach might be useful for macro scale risk assessment within the context of climate change.

An Integrated Method for Mapping Impervious and Pervious Areas in Urban Environments Using Hyperspectral and LiDAR Data

Abstract. As urbanization continues to increase and extreme climatic events become more prevalent, urban planners and engineers are actively implementing adaptive measures to protect urban assets and communities. To support the urban planning adaptation process, mapping of impervious and pervious areas is essential to understanding the hydrodynamic environment within urban areas for flood risk planning. The application of advance geospatial data and analytical techniques using remote sensing and GIS can improve land surface characterization to better quantify surface run-off and infiltration. This study presents a method to combine airborne hyperspectral and LiDAR data for classifying pervious (e.g. vegetation, gravel, and soil) and impervious (e.g. asphalt and concrete) areas within road allowance areas for the City of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Hyperspectral data was acquired using the Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) at 1 m ground spatial resolution, consisting of 72 spectral bands, and LiDAR data acquired from Leica Airborne LiDAR system at a density of 20 points/m2. A spectral library was established using 10 cm orthophotography and GIS data to identify surface features. In addition to spectral functions such as mean and standard deviation, several spectral indices were developed to discriminate between asphalt, concrete, gravel, vegetation, and shadows respectively. A spectral analysis of selected endmembers was conducted and an initial classification technique was applied using Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM). The classification results (i.e. shadows) were improved by integrating LIDAR data with the hyperspectral data.

Community attachment and resident attitude toward old masonry walls and associated trees in urban Hong Kong

Mature urban trees dwelling on old masonry walls are a rare urban ecological and landscape treasure. These ‘stonewall’ trees denoting synergy between nature (trees) and culture (masonry) are worth preserving. This study aims to identify factors influencing public attitude toward this important but threatened natural-cum-cultural asset in a compact city milieu. Evidence is solicited from a face-to-face questionnaire survey involving 800 citizens of Hong Kong. Results indicate that Hong Kong people generally appreciate the existence of stonewall trees. Younger adults harbored doubts about their value, whereas the older ones were more sympathetic. Local residents of the suburbs that host the majority of stonewall trees registered stronger commitment than non-local residents. Community attachment had positive effects across both resident groups, but length of tenure was not a key factor. This suggests that affinity for stonewall trees is a function of the affective bonding between people and the community where they live. Deep engagement with the local community elevated the desire for preserving the walls and associated trees. The findings are important for understanding public perception and enlisting support from the larger society for preserving the urban asset against mounting pressures for urban development and renewal.

Branding George Town world heritage site as city of gastronomy: prospects of creative cities strategy in Penang

Purpose– This paper aims to discuss the prevalent trends of exploiting cultural capital such as gastronomic legacy to ignite redevelopment of contemporary cities as illustrated in the city of George Town, Penang, Malaysia. In the twenty-first century, cities are transforming to be creative cities as they compete globally on the basis of their respective city branding, image and identity, as well as cultural capital assets. The emerging importance of cultural capital complements the realms of politics, economics and built environment in creating sustainable urban structure and ecosystem.Design/methodology/approach– In line with UNESCO’s creative cities network flagship, this paper showcases George Town’s potentials in propagating its gastronomic appeals as a strategic urban asset to regenerate the urban economy.Findings– This paper postulates branding George Town World Heritage Site as a creative city under the theme of “City of Gastronomy” would successfully capture the city’s gastronomic prowess, image and identity at the global scene.Originality/value– Given that research in “culture and urban planning” is still at its infancy and largely absent in the Malaysian context, this study aims to fill that research gap and contributes towards existing scholarship. The findings from this test bed study will benefit key stakeholders, especially urban policymakers (i.e. Local Council, State Government and Federal Government) towards reforming and revolutionising contemporary urban policies towards sustainable development.

Research on Smart Urban Metro Transport Enterprise Asset Management System

Aiming at the business requirements of the urban metro transport operational asset management, this paper explored urban metro transport operational asset management system; by means of analyzing information cost of urban metro transport, smart urban metro transport operational asset management system were put forward, and the characteristics and relationship: “Asset Instrumentation, Resource Virtualization, Capacity Servitization, Business Collaboration and Decision-making Intelligentialize” in full life-cycle operational asset management process were discussed in details. Finally, system construction suggestions were given.

The Enhancement of the Urban Environment: Sustainable Mobility in Reggio Calabria

The proposal of a sustainable mobility project for the use of assets requires evaluations regarding the balances that regulate the territory and its functions that necessarily involve the introduction of the concept of quality. The efficiency of public transport and collective services, the well-kept historical center, the suburbs integrated and connected with the entire city, a strong morphological and cultural identity of the settlement, are, on the whole, the results that a careful project of the territory should be able to achieve. This contribution intends to deal with the issue of public mobility and accessibility in a view of territorial development linked to the use of the urban area asset of Reggio Calabria.

Prototype Decision-Support System for Designing and Costing Municipal Green Infrastructure

AbstractThere is growing momentum across many municipal jurisdictions in North America to reuse public and privately held vacant and underutilized urban land on a temporary to potentially permanent basis for community-centered and community-driven projects. Some uses include urban agriculture, parks and open spaces, and linear bikeway or walkway connections. Across many jurisdictions, limited resources have been allocated to inventorying and determining the valuation of these urban assets and their potential to contribute to a city’s green infrastructure capacity. The purpose of this research is to add an augmented capacity to an existing Microsoft Excel-based decision-support tool that captures the condition and location of vacant and underutilized land, calculates the relative suitability of the inventoried land for a suite of reuse strategies, and allows the user to evaluate location-allocation modeling scenarios. The additional capacity introduced herein provides users with the ability to produce a sc...

Inter-temporal Changes in Well-being During Conditions of Hyperinflation: Evidence from Zimbabwe

In the last decade, the economy of Zimbabwe underwent unprecedented stress and change. Starting in 2000, land reform began with farm invasions. This process eventually evolved into a government-guided fast-track reform. During this process, the international community imposed sanctions, and these factors, together with a severe drought, let to a reduction in availability of the main food staple. Inflationary pressures built and were exacerbated by foreign exchange shortages. The economy slowed due to debt overhang and dwindling investment caused in part by increased uncertainty. Several factors contributed to deterioration of the value of the Zimbabwean Dollar and by mid-2007, hyperinflation became rampant. The economic crisis began to abate in 2008 and political agreements signed in 2008 and implemented in 2009 led to further stabilisation. As Zimbabwe moves forward, it is important to understand the conditions faced by the poor, and how they have changed during the period of hyperinflation. To do so, this paper uses 2001 and 2007/8 nationally representative household data and an asset index to avoid reliance on money-metric measures during the period of hyperinflation. An asset index is constructed using polychoric principal component analysis for both periods. A profile of well-being in 2001 is obtained using consumption expenditures, which helps calibrate asset index poverty lines. The 2001 data are used to generate small-area poverty estimates for both survey years and to validate the robustness of the findings from the asset index. The asset index holds its own when compared with standard consumption expenditure methods and small-area estimation-based predictions, providing confidence in our findings. Urban asset poverty declined during 2001/7, but extreme poverty increased. Rural asset poverty and extreme poverty worsened between 2001 and 2007. For the best-educated households, poverty increased significantly. Conditions of communal and resettlement workers deteriorated, reflecting worsening economic conditions in rural areas.

Measuring disparities in sanitation access: does the measure matter?

Initiatives to monitor progress in health interventions like sanitation are increasingly focused on disparities in access. We explored three methodological challenges to monitoring changes in sanitation coverage across socio-economic and demographic determinants: (i) confounding by wealth indices including water and sanitation assets, (ii) use of individual urban and rural settings versus national wealth indices and (iii) child-level versus household-level analyses. Sanitation coverage by wealth for children and households across settings was estimated from recent Demographic and Health Surveys in six low-income countries. Household assignment to wealth quintiles was based on principal components analyses of assets. Concordance in household quintile assignment and estimated distribution of improved sanitation was assessed using two wealth indices differing by inclusion or exclusion of water and sanitation assets and independently derived for each setting. Improved sanitation was estimated using under five children and households. Wealth indices estimated with water, and sanitation assets are highly correlated with indices excluding them but can overstate disparities in sanitation access. Independently, derived setting wealth indices highly correlate with setting estimates of coverage using a single national index. Sanitation coverage and quintile disparities were consistently lower in household-level estimates. Standard asset indices provide a reasonably robust measure of disparities in improved sanitation, although overestimation is possible. Separate setting wealth quintiles reveal important disparities in urban areas, but analysis of setting quintiles using a national index is sufficient. Estimates and disparities in household-level coverage of improved sanitation can underestimate coverage for children under five.

Emergy-based dynamic mechanisms of urban development, resource consumption and environmental impacts

As the center of human activities and social civilization, cities have developed at the cost of serious environmental degradation and huge eco-environmental pressure, which further lower human living standards and impede the sustainable development of urban ecosystems. Current urban dynamic methods have broader views and focus more on ecological aspects, e.g., the impact of emissions and resource consumption, but they lack a rigorous thermodynamic framework. Consequently, there is a need to modify existing processes and develop new technologies that minimize environmental impact while stimulating ecological flow. This paper describes the development of a forecasting model, named the emergy-based urban dynamic model, capable of accurately simulating the observed resource consumption, economic growth, and environmental impact of Beijing from 1999 to 2039. This model differs from previous urban emergy models by monitoring the negative effects to human well-being and ecosystem integrity in the developing urban system. A fresh perspective focuses on urban comprehensive performance, linking such impacts to a supply-side environmental cost evaluation (including ecological service supply, ecological and economic losses, and investment for treatment). In this introductory paper, we present the conceptual considerations of the most important components of the emergy-based urban dynamic model: the urban assets, lands, capitals, population, water resources, and economic and environmental loss. Each subsystem in this model will enrich the feedback dynamics, policy levers, and post-scenario analyses. Statistical information and calibration were also considered in this dynamic emergy accounting. The simulation revealed that water resources will be the most important limiting factor for the sustainable development of Beijing. A better approach would not be more engineering projects to deliver new supplies but to curb demand through efficiency improvements in water supply and consumption using the rule of law and economic incentives. The results of the simulation revealed that after the year 2015, many emergy indicators will collapse. The results of our study will enable urban policy planners to understand these inter-linkages by addressing specific damages to human health and the ecosystem's integrity, as well as by linking such impacts to a supply-side environmental cost evaluation.

Associations between wealth and weight status in Filipinos from birth to early adulthood

Wealth predicts BMI and is especially relevant in the context of the nutrition transition in low‐and middle‐income countries.Sex‐stratified, longitudinal, random effects models were used to estimate how wealth (represented by factor scores of household assets) relates to BMI at birth, 2, 8.5, 11.5, 15.6, 18.7, and 21.5y in the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (n=1925). We performed a factor analysis on assets reported in 2005 using a varimax orthogonal rotation. Three factors with eigenvalues >;1.5 were retained: F1 represents urban assets (e.g. car, appliances); F2 modernization (TV, videogames); F3 rural assets (animals, land). The 2005 factor structure was used to score prior years.In males, higher F1 and F2 scores were associated with significantly higher BMI (β=0.16, p<0.001; β=0.044, p<0.001, respectively). A higher F3 score was associated with lower BMI (β= −0.08, p<0.001). In females, higher F1 and F2 scores were associated with lower BMI (β= −0.034, p=0.018; β= −0.018, p=0.023, respectively). However, in cross‐sectional analyses higher F1 score was associated with higher BMI at 8.5 and 11.5y (p<0.01). F3 scores were unrelated to BMI.These sex differences in how wealth relates to BMI suggest that as wealth increases, females may be more susceptible to Western body image messages and exhibit an inverse relationship of wealth and BMI starting around menarche.Funding Source: Pfizer NutritionGrant Funding Source: Pfizer Nutrition

The measurement of household socio-economic position in tuberculosis prevalence surveys: a sensitivity analysis

To assess the robustness of socio-economic inequalities in tuberculosis (TB) prevalence surveys. Data were drawn from the TB prevalence survey conducted in Lusaka Province, Zambia, in 2005-2006. We compared TB socio-economic inequalities measured through an asset-based index (Index 0) using principal component analysis (PCA) with those observed using three alternative indices: Index 1 and Index 2 accounted respectively for the biases resulting from the inclusion of urban assets and food-related variables in Index 0. Index 3 was built using regression-based analysis instead of PCA to account for the effect of using a different assets weighting strategy. Household socio-economic position (SEP) was significantly associated with prevalent TB, regardless of the index used; however, the magnitude of inequalities did vary across indices. A strong association was found for Index 2, suggesting that the exclusion of food-related variables did not reduce the extent of association between SEP and prevalent TB. The weakest association was found for Index 1, indicating that the exclusion of urban assets did not lead to higher extent of TB inequalities. TB socio-economic inequalities seem to be robust to the choice of SEP indicator. The epidemiological meaning of the different extent of TB inequalities is unclear. Further studies are needed to confirm our conclusions.

Urban Advantages and Disadvantages in Southeastern Europe: An Appreciation of Industrial Firms by Using Exploratory Factor Analysis

1. Introduction: Industrial Firms' Competitiveness and Local Assets Mainly, two traditional theories of strategic management, the Industrial Organization Theory and the Resource-Based View, try to explain the development and competitiveness of industrial firms. The first theory focuses on the forces of firms external environment that influenced their competitiveness (Porter, M.E., 1998), while the second one concerns firms internal environment--their own capacities and the sources that they have in order to become competitive (Barney, 2001; Wernerfelt, 1984). To the forces of external environment, are also referred the distinctive characteristics or urban assets where firms are located (Parkinson, et al., 2004; Begg, 1999; Deas, and Giordano, 2001). According to Maskell and Malmberg (1999), the competitiveness of industrial firms, depends on a particular combination of local characteristics that influence the distribution of economic activities, combining each time the capacity of each place on local and regional level. Through the analysis of the relationship between the territory (region, city) and the industrial firm, they try to find the answers on questions relating to how the forces of the spatial environment affect firms, through which ways and procedures these firms grow and how industrial systems (2), in which the firms belong to, affect the firms' development strategies. Porter, referring to the formation of the firms environment at micro level, he argued that it is understood through the correlation of four key areas of analysis: a) the quality of inputs / conditions of the local environment, b) the framework of the strategies and competition of the firm, c) the quality of demand conditions in the local environment and d) the presence of other related or supporting firms (Porter, 1998, 2000, 2003 / DTI 2003). As shown in figure 1 ('diamond model'), the factors that compose the above areas of analysis, represent both the firms as organizations and activities and environmental characteristics of sites / areas where the firms are located and which affect the productivity and the firms' development. Several other studies examine specific factors such as agglomeration economies and easy access to markets (national and European markets, access to customers and suppliers, existence of foreign firms and availability of supporting services) [CEC, 1993; Iammarino, and Pitelis, 2000; Haufler and Wooton, 1999; Nachum and Keeble, 2003; Redding and Venables, 2004; Iammarino and McCann, 2006)], regional and local policies (strong investments motives, local authorities attitude towards businesses, entrepreneurial climate, and low local taxes) [Fuller, et al., 2003; Cossentino, 1996; Bennett and Krebs, 1991; Devereux and Griffith, 2002; Young, 2005], labour factors (availability, quality and the specialization of the labour force) [Keune, 2001; Sforzi and Lorenzini, 2002 cited in Lazzeretti, et. al., 2008], cost of transportation and the costs of land use and labour (Harrington and Warf, 1995; Miller, 1977; Zhu, 2000), urban infrastructure (efficiency of road/highway network, railway connections, sea connections, air connections and telecommunications) [Vickerman, 1994, 1996; Gao, 2004]. Finally, a number of studies have define that role of the local authorities is very important since they can support the competitiveness of the existing firms and they can attract new ones, contributing to the creation of a dynamic business environment, (Leeming, 2002; Syrett, 1994). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Based on the above each firm is not just a formal structured entity, but contrary it is an important part of the wider local social, economic and cultural environment. This environment can provide competitive advantages, which might refer to the specific characteristics of the cities / areas (infrastructure, technology, expertise, etc.). These advantages will strengthen the competitiveness of the local firms and contribute to attracting and creating new ones (Keune, 2001; Cossentino, 1996). …

MILITARY SITE’S CONVERSION MANAGEMENT PROCESS AND FIRM’S COMPETITIVENESS: ENTREPRENEURIAL EVIDENCES

The main goal of this study is to propose a decision-making approach to explore the relationship between military air bases’s conversion processes and firm’s competitiveness. During the past four decades the conversion of Defense air bases to new civilian uses played a central role in determining social and economic regional competitiveness, demonstrating that the management process have impacts on urban assets, agglomeration economies, urban infrastructures, labor and cost factors, development policies. Also Competitiveness, mainly that of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), has constituted a very interesting research field over the past 20 years. Nevertheless the relevant impact on firm’s strategy and performance, few researchers in strategic management and governance have investigated the effectiveness of site’s conversion process to increasing firms competitiveness. The paper shows how the conversion processes on an integrated services area can create business opportunity, can facilitate entry in new markets, facilitate new innovation processes, facilitate new management, control and commercial services, increases business linkages and agreements for local firms (Business Networking). The study presents the case of conversion process of ex Nato Base of Comiso (Sicily), important military site in regional area characterized by high entrepreneurial development. Eempirical evidence of the case study consists of a European benchmarking conversion bases and of a survey of 48 local firms. Finally the study presents valuable conversion projects and strategic perspectives for managers, entrepreneurs and policy-makers.

Financing the resilient city

This paper presents a strategy for scaling climate change adaptation within urban areas. The strategy specifically focuses on the requirements for mobilizing large amounts of capital for adaptation and other urban risk reduction above and beyond the amounts that will likely be mobilized through new international adaptation funds. The paper, based on a report published by ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability,( 1 ) proposes a re-framing of the urban adaptation and disaster reduction challenge. The approach shifts the adaptation focus from risk reduction as a primary end in itself to a broader development focus on financing the performance of urban assets, areas and/or systems. This emphasis is elaborated through the concept of “resilience”, an urban design and investment metric that measures the ability of urban areas and their individual assets to perform for users and their investors under a wide range of conditions. The paper argues that such a performance-oriented approach provides a business logic that can attract conventional, private investment flows to climate and disaster risk reduction measures and thereby “mainstream” them.

Fire management strategies for Pinus radiata plantations near urban areas

Summary The western suburbs of Canberra were established in the 1970s adjacent to the Stromlo pine plantation with interface treeless buffer widths of between 55 and 82 m. Bushfires in 2001 and 2003 that burnt through Stromlo plantation provide information about the threats from bushfires in radiata pine plantations to houses and the effectiveness of some plantation fire management practices close to urban areas. This paper reviews the scientific basis for fire management in Pinus radiata plantations and provides information about fire management strategies and the specific measures that were in place in the Stromlo plantation. It reviews the 2001 and 2003 bushfires and their impacts on the Stromlo plantation and adjacent urban assets, as well as the effects of fuel management undertaken prior to the 2003 bushfire. The 2001 bushfire, burning under a Forest Fire Danger Index of 38, destroyed 500 ha of the plantation without any losses of urban assets. The 2003 bushfire, burning under a Forest Fire Danger Index of 102 destroyed the remaining 1800 ha of plantation and 250 houses in the suburbs adjacent to the plantation. Forty-three percent of houses in the 125–152-m-wide plantation ember zone at the urban interface were destroyed, apparently as a result of heavy ember attack. The width of the existing buffers had little impact on the proportion of houses lost. A low-intensity prescribed burn conducted in 2001 reduced the fire intensity in the plantation but did not reduce the proportion of adjacent houses that were destroyed. Drawing on this information, the paper identifies where further research is needed and recommends minimum buffers of 150 m between pine plantations and urban assets in order to reduce the risk of house losses from ember attack during intense bushfires.