Does Place Attachment Predict Wildfire Mitigation and Preparedness? A Comparison of Wildland–Urban Interface and Rural Communities

Abstract

Wildfires are a common occurrence in many countries and are predicted to increase as we experience the effects of climate change. As more people are expected to be affected by fires, it is important to increase people's wildfire mitigation and preparation. Place attachment has been theorized to be related to mitigation and preparation. The present study examined place attachment and wildfire mitigation and preparation in two Australian samples, one rural and one on the wildland-urban interface. The study consisted of 300 participants who responded to questionnaires about their place attachment to their homes and local areas, as well as describing their socio-demographic characteristics and wildfire mitigation and preparedness. Hierarchical regression showed that place attachment to homes predicted wildfire mitigation and preparedness in the rural sample but not in the wildland-urban interface sample. The results suggest that place attachment is a motivator for mitigation and preparation only for people living rurally. Reminding rural residents of their attachment to home at the beginning of wildfire season may result in greater mitigation and preparedness. Further research focusing on why attachment does not predict mitigation and preparedness in the wildland-urban interface is needed.

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

“…Age is an important influence on whether residents perform either heavy or full fuel reduction mitigations on their properties. That finding is consistent with existing research because heavy or full fuel reduction would be more difficult for older residents to accomplish (e.g., felling trees, cutting down brush in a larger area) (Anton and Lawrence 2016;Meldrum et al 2014). …”

“…Research on the factors that predict or influence performance of residential wildfire mitigation strategies are a predominant focus of wildfire social science. Mitigation strategies commonly studied include a host of activities designed to Environmental Management reduce or modify flammable vegetation near structures, use of fire-resistant building materials, clearing gutters of pine needles, and moving firewood away from the home (Anton and Lawrence 2016). This research focuses then on what we could call indicators of adaptive capacity.…”

“…These research segments include (1) probabilistic simulation or modeling of wildfire exposure and risk to human populations ; Thompson et al 2015); (2) analysis of the sociodemographic patterns that correlate with potential or actual fire damages (Mann et al 2014;Andrey and Jones 2008;Nielsen-Pincus et al 2015); and (3) wildfire social science efforts attempting to promote or predict performance of actions that residents can take to reduce risk on their private property (e.g., fuel reduction around homes, using ignition-resistant building materials, and planning) (Anton and Lawrence 2016;Dickinson et al 2015;Fischer et al 2014). Few efforts bring together outputs from those research segments to empirically test the underlying assumptions commonly made when carrying out assessments of wildfire risk across human populations or the trends underlying its growth.…”

Perceptions of Cyclone Preparedness: Assessing the Role of Individual Adaptive Capacity and Social Capital in the Wet Tropics, Australia

“…Place attachment refers to the degree of connection that people have with a natural or human-made place [58], and is suggested to be an important predictor of disaster preparedness [8,59]. Studies have shown that if people have an emotional connection to a place, they are more likely to be inspired to plan and reorganize themselves for a disaster in order to continue staying there [60,61].…”

“…Disaster preparedness is a multidimensional construct comprising individual physical and psychological preparedness as well as community preparedness [8]. At an individual level, people need to be both physically and psychologically prepared for natural disasters [9].…”