Demography: a tool for understanding the wildland-urban interface fire problems

Abstract

Fire managers across the nation are confronting the rapidly developing problem created by movement of people into wildland areas, increasing what has been termed the wildland-urban interface. The problem is very complex from the standpoint of fire planning and management. To plan and manage more effectively, fire managers should identify three types of interface areas, each with its own unique set of demographic factors, local land use, and fire protection problems. By examining and understanding how future trends will affect fire protection tactics and strategy in each of the interfaces, managers should be able to plan ahead--to be proactive rather than reactive in relations with the public and its leaders. To do this, however, fire managers should understand how population dynamics--demographics--influences the area that they manage.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the symposium on fire and watershed management

Citation

Davis, James B. 1989. Demography: a tool for understanding the wildland-urban interface fire problems. In: Berg, Neil H. tech. coord. Proceedings of the Symposium on Fire and Watershed Management: October 26-28, 1988, Sacramento, California. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-109. Berkeley, Calif.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station: 38-42