The “Strings Attached” to Community Difference and Potential Pathways to Fire Adaptiveness in the Wildland Urban Interface

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C Billings ◽  
Matthew S Carroll ◽  
Travis B Paveglio
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Wildfire Risk ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Reduce Risk ◽  
Risk Reduction Strategies ◽  
Community Difference

Abstract This article identifies specific social characteristics in two wildland urban interface communities that may have significant impacts on the ability of those communities to adapt to wildfire. Researchers used a mixed-methods approach to triangulate results to identify potential views and motives surrounding three important behaviors and values related to crafting potential strategies to mitigate wildfire risk. The analysis of quantitative data in the form of responses to Likert-type questions and qualitative data in the form of responses to questions asked during focus group sessions yielded a deeper understanding of the way the terms independence and trust are conceptualized from one community to another. Understanding what these concepts mean in the context of a given community is essential to understanding how to move forward with strategies to reduce risk and eliminate potential barriers to doing so. Study Implications Two important social characteristics of wildland urban interface (WUI) communities are trust and independence. Trust and independence look different in different types of communities. The two terms also encapsulate a range of meanings that vary depending on local social context. Being able to identify what types of trust and independence are present in a particular WUI community can help practitioners craft wildfire risk reduction strategies that are most likely to be well received and successfully integrated into individual WUI communities. This article offers examples of how these characteristics manifest themselves in two different communities in the Pacific Northwest.

scholarly journals Hazards of Risk: Identifying Plausible Community Wildfire Disasters in Low-Frequency Fire Regimes

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 934
Author(s):  
Andy McEvoy ◽  
Becky K. Kerns ◽  
John B. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Wildfire Risk ◽  
Location Data ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Community Exposure ◽  
Risk Reduction Strategies

Optimized wildfire risk reduction strategies are generally not resilient in the event of unanticipated, or very rare events, presenting a hazard in risk assessments which otherwise rely on actuarial, mean-based statistics to characterize risk. This hazard of actuarial approaches to wildfire risk is perhaps particularly evident for infrequent fire regimes such as those in the temperate forests west of the Cascade Range crest in Oregon and Washington, USA (“Westside”), where fire return intervals often exceed 200 years but where fires can be extremely intense and devastating. In this study, we used wildfire simulations and building location data to evaluate community wildfire exposure and identify plausible disasters that are not based on typical mean-based statistical approaches. We compared the location and magnitude of simulated disasters to historical disasters (1984–2020) in order to characterize plausible surprises which could inform future wildfire risk reduction planning. Results indicate that nearly half of communities are vulnerable to a future disaster, that the magnitude of plausible disasters exceeds any recent historical events, and that ignitions on private land are most likely to result in very high community exposure. Our methods, in combination with more typical actuarial characterizations, provide a way to support investment in and communication with communities exposed to low-probability, high-consequence wildfires.

Proactive Transfer Pricing Risk Management in PATA Countries

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan C. Borkowski ◽  
Mary Anne Gaffney
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Transfer Pricing ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Audit Risk ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Confidential Data ◽  
Consulting Firms ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Contradictory Evidence ◽  
Risk Reduction Strategies

ABSTRACT Transnational corporations (TNCs) have long considered transfer pricing as a key tax concern. If stability in transfer pricing is a necessary condition for dynamic cross-border trading, then recent financial reporting changes, updated transfer pricing guidelines, and new reporting requirements for uncertain tax positions are destabilizing influences that must be addressed by companies in order to mitigate their transfer pricing-related exposures and risk. This study reports the results of a survey of tax executives from the four countries comprising the Pacific Association of Tax Administrators (PATA), three of which have transfer pricing regulations based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines. The study seeks to explain how TNCs are managing their transfer pricing risks proactively in today's volatile environment, and if their actions are successful. Findings include contradictory evidence regarding audit risk reduction strategies recommended by tax authorities and the utility of those strategies in actually reducing corporate audit risk. These were surprising results, given that tax authorities and transfer pricing consulting firms tout certain transfer pricing agreements as the best way to mitigate transfer pricing audit risk. At best, are these agreements neutral relative to audit risk? At worst, are tax authorities using these agreements as a source of confidential data for possible future use in both transfer pricing and non-transfer pricing audits?

scholarly journals Prescribed Burning Costs and the WUI: Economic Effects in the Pacific Northwest

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison H. Berry ◽  
Geoffrey Donovan ◽  
Hayley Hesseln
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Fuels Management ◽  
Site Characteristics ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Treatment Type ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Federal fuels managers are increasingly using prescribed fire to decrease hazardous fuels and risks to resources in wildland and urban settings. Two factors have become apparent throughout the last several years: prescribed burning costs are rising, and costs exhibit substantial variability (NIFC 2003). Federal fire managers are bound by federal policy to allocate resources efficiently, yet this is difficult without a full understanding of the cost structure of fuels management. Previous studies have examined factors influencing costs but have also grappled with a lack of consistent or reliable data. This study uses FASTRACS (Fuel Analysis, Smoke Tracking, Report Access Computer System), a database maintained by the Pacific Northwest region of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The database provides information for Washington and Oregon on costs, physical site characteristics, and managerial concerns for fuels management activities. Using multiple regression analysis, we show that the cost of fuels management is influenced by the wildland-urban interface, number of acres treated, designated protection areas, slope, elevation, treatment type, fire regime, agency, and season. Prescribed burning in the wildland-urban interface increased costs, ceteris paribus, 139%. Findings with respect to physical site characteristics were similar to those found in previous research.

Suitability of Natural Areas for Representing Ecological Change in the Pacific Northwest

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 452
Author(s):  
Margaret H. Massie ◽  
Todd M. Wilson ◽  
Anita T. Morzillo ◽  
Emilie B. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Natural Areas ◽  
The Pacific

The Role of Revascularisation in Patients Undergoing Non-cardiac Surgery

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Daniel S Menees ◽  
Eric R Bates ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cardiac Surgery ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Cardiovascular Complications ◽  
Weight Of Evidence ◽  
Beta Blockade ◽  
Cardiac Morbidity ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Artery Disease ◽  
Risk Reduction Strategies

Coronary artery disease (CAD) affects millions of US citizens. As the population ages, an increasing number of people with CAD are undergoing non-cardiac surgery and face significant peri-operative cardiac morbidity and mortality. Risk-prediction models can be used to help identify those patients at increased risk of peri-operative cardiovascular complications. Risk-reduction strategies utilising pharmacotherapy with beta blockade and statins have shown the most promise. Importantly, the benefit of prophylactic coronary revascularisation has not been demonstrated. The weight of evidence suggests reserving either percutaneous or surgical revascularisation in the pre-operative setting for those patients who would otherwise meet independent revascularisation criteria.

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