VIRTUAL: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

Wildfires regularly ravage the western United States on an annual basis, destroying acres of land and property. The most impacted state, California, reported 2,233,666 acres of land burned by wildfires in 2021. Decades of mismanagement in California’s forests, have led to overgrowth; providing fuel for yearly wildfires. Development strategies in forested areas have not explored new ideas to improve sustainability and eco-resilience efforts for affected communities. Through Value-Inclusive Design, this study looks at past practices employed by Native Americans and other agricultural and urbanization methods to propose new master planning ideas for California; one providing improved spacing and clearing of forests that integrates community needs and nature. Presently, logging, low intensity burnings, and high-tech monitoring of wildfire movement through arial drones provide similar results, but limited funding, and perpetual drought conditions caused by climate change, reduce effectiveness. With improved planning, communities may become more sustainable and eco-resilient; reducing the damage caused by wildfires. To accomplish this, data from publicly available government sources will be collected to locate the highest impacted region, highlight deficiencies in community resilience methods, and provide a comprehensive alternative as to what a sustainable and eco-resilient community may look like.