6th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC 2016 Integrative Risk Management - Towards Resilient Cities. 28 August - 01 September 2016 in Davos, Switzerland

1. IDRC Davos 2016
Davos, Switzerland
29 August, 2016
A Life Cycle Hazard Assessment
Framework to Address Fire Hazards at
the Wildland-Urban Interface
Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., Director,
Public Policy Research Center

2. Introduction
• Objective: advocate for longer term,
proactive, coupled hazard perspective.
• Rationale for the LCHA.
• Discuss the current state of the “multi-
hazard” concept.
• Discuss the life cycle assessment.
approach and its adaptation to hazards.
• Southwest Idaho (and beyond) as an
exemplar.
• Next steps and more questions.
Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., Director,
Public Policy Research Center

3. Rationale
• Need for longer term perspective on wildfires
and related hazards, based on observation.
• WUI in southwest Idaho is often in the foothills
(desirable location).
• Increased development pressure, creating
vulnerability in spite of signals (CA fires, LA
flooding).
• Disaster cycle – closed loop, “wildfire season.”
• We treat wildfires as discrete (manageable)
events, increasing vulnerability.
Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., Director,
Public Policy Research Center

4. “Multi-hazards” where are we now?
• Generally 1-2 connections, short time frame.
• Cascading, domino, triggering, primary and
secondary, “mutating” disasters.
• Disaster cycle – (prepare, respond, recover,
mitigate) closed loop, “wildfire season”
emergency management approach.
• Systems approach is more complex – “suite” of
potential hazards in a unit of analysis.
• Hazardscapes, riskscapes- landscape scale (social
and natural dimensions).
Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., Director,
Public Policy Research Center

5. Adapting the life cycle assessment concept
• Based on business models of product life cycle.
• Adapted for environmental impacts of products.
• Currently being applied for biodiversity and
ecosystems impacts.
• Add the “hazard” and consider fire as the
“product” within ecological, societal, and bio-
physical domains, and natural and tech hazards.
• Platform for integrating disciplines and
approaches to consider fire impact over time.
Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., Director,
Public Policy Research Center

6. LCHA and Southwest Idaho
• Tale of three wildfires.
• Soda Fire - 2015 - 280,000 acres, contentious post
fire recovery and restoration issues
• Pioneer Fire – 2016 – 100,000 acres and growing
• Boise WUI fires – 2016 – human caused
• Boise basin as a unit of analysis: fire, flood,
smoke/dust, earthquake, infrastructure failure.
• Administrative jurisdictions and decision making.
Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., Director,
Public Policy Research Center

14. Next steps for the LCHA and questions
• Temporal and spatial implications? Slow versus
rapid secondary hazard interactions (Gill and
Malamud).
• What are the implications for regional scale
governance? Competing jurisdictions and
resources.
• Challenging research on the science – policy
nexus = transdisciplinarity is the key.
• Need integrative disaster theory to address the
current situations.
Eric Lindquist, Ph.D., Director,
Public Policy Research Center