Enhancing FireSmart and ClimateSmart: Neighbourhood resilience through community mapping and data visualization
Date
2025
Authors
Chegini, Aaron
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Abstract
As the risk of wildfire in urban and peri-urban areas intensifies due to climate change, a critical need has emerged to bridge the gap between conventional fire safety protocols and holistic climate adaptation strategies. This project was pursued to address this challenge by enhancing neighbourhood resilience to wildfires through the development of actionable, data-driven tools for the Resilient Urban Systems & Habitat (RUSH) platform (What's the RUSH?).
The primary goal was to synthesize and analyze FireSmart and ClimateSmart strategies, engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, and integrate key datasets into a user-friendly "Protect From Fire" mapping tool (What's the RUSH?). The ultimate purpose is to empower non-technical audiences, including community members, municipal planners, and advocacy groups, to make informed decisions that promote both fire safety and ecological health, ensuring that the urgent need for housing does not compromise long-term community resilience. This works culminated in the development of a preliminary, high-resolution fire risk model that improves upon existing provincial data, providing a more accurate tool for local decision-making.
Description
Sustainability Scholars Program final report
Keywords
FireSmart, ClimateSmart, climate change, wildfire, fire safety, protocols, adaptation strategies, resilient, urban, systems, habitat, Sustainability Scholars Program