Wildfire-Residential Risk Analysis Using Building Characteristics and Simulations to Enhance Structural Fire Resistance in Greece

Abstract

Urban areas adjacent to wildlands are very dangerous zones for residents and their properties during a wildfire event. We attempted to connect wildfire simulations with field inventories and surveys to create a framework that can be used to enhance the fire resistance of residential structures located in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Legal restrictions and the lack of economic incentives for WUI residents greatly limit the potential to appropriately intervene to enhance their property’s fire resistance. By studying in situ the resilience of building materials and combining them with exposure metrics produced from wildfire simulations, we created an index that helps to assess fire risk at the property level. The proposed index can support property owners to optimally manage the vegetation near or inside their property. State agencies can use our proposed index to estimate with a consistent methodology which properties are more exposed and with higher risk from fire damage so that specific fuel and vegetation management practices on and around them can be suggested or enforced.