Community Wildfire Preparedness: a Global State-of-the-Knowledge Summary of Social Science Research

Abstract

This article builds on findings from a synthesis of fire social science research that was published from 2000 to 2010 to understand what has been learned more recently about public response to wildfires. Two notable changes were immediately noted in the fairly substantial number of articles published between 2011 and 2014. First, while over 90 % of the articles found in the initial synthesis were US-based studies, roughly half of the articles published since 2010 have been conducted outside the USA, the majority from Australia. Second, while the primary focus of earlier studies was on pre-fire mitigation efforts on both public and private lands, roughly half of the recent articles focused on dynamics during and after a fire. Overall, findings from the current review re-enforce key themes identified in the previous synthesis work and provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how certain variables, such as risk perception, may influence public response to wildfires. In addition, several important dynamics emerged across studies: the similarity of findings across countries, increased work across the temporal gradient, the importance of social interactions and of place attachment in shaping response, the need to take local knowledge and context into account, and the importance of financial support. These patterns suggest that while no single outreach approach or policy is likely to be effective everywhere or for everyone, efforts that facilitate development of relationships, within communities and between community members and fire personnel, can contribute to increased preparedness at the individual and community level by facilitating information exchange and helping to build a sense of community.

Where you stand depends on where you sit: qualitative inquiry into notions of fire adaptation

“…Importantly, participants' attention to variation in manifestations of adaptation across community contexts was articulated by most of the study respondents and echoed research that demonstrates the importance and diversity of community characteristics (McCaffrey 2015, Paveglio et al 2015. Further, most participants discussed the fact that scaling up beyond the household level entails processes that involve more stakeholders and that the interdependency among sectors increases-both facilitating and necessitating engagement with more stakeholders.…”

“…Community case studies address this limitation, in part, by highlighting the importance of examining this intersection by placing hazard coping behaviors within local contexts to provide insights into how contextual characteristics and local histories shape response to wildfire risk (McCaffrey et al 2013, McCaffrey 2015. Such efforts build understandings of the function of local social systems but often face limitations in comparability across context due to the scale of inquiry.…”

Evaluating the Characteristics of Social Vulnerability to Wildfire: Demographics, Perceptions, and Parcel Characteristics

“…Social science research on personal mitigations has found that demographic variables are inconsistent or inconsequential as predictors of adaptive behaviors (McCaffrey 2015). Marginal exceptions include reduced performance of actions among second homeowners or parttime residents and very elderly populations, though even the latter is inconsistent.…”

Recognizing Women Leaders in Fire Science

“…Her notable works include further understanding the role of social science research in wildfire management [241] and contributions to a synthesis focusing on how to adapt and coexist with wildfires [196]. Her recent works have included a synthesis of lessons learned in public responses to wildfires from 2010-2015 [242] and evaluating what types of information people trust and find useful during wildfire disasters [157].…”