Project Context

Over the past two decades, the United States has experienced substantial growth in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), driven by urban expansion, land-use change, and shifting climate conditions. The WUI is the area where human development, including residential, commercial, and recreational uses, meets or intermingles with natural vegetation such as forests, grasslands, shrublands, and wetlands. This overlap creates landscapes that are increasingly vulnerable to wildfire impacts on homes, infrastructure, and communities.

Building codes are one of the most effective tools to reduce wildfire risk. Homes built to wildfire-resistant standards are far more likely to survive a fire—by as much as 40 to 60 percent. These codes are also economically advantageous: research shows that while homes built to code may cost slightly more than traditional construction, they can prevent catastrophic future losses.

Despite the safety and economic benefits, wildfire code adoption has faced resistance in some states because of concerns about upfront costs, where and how codes will be enforced, and potential conflicts with local policies. The wildfire risk maps that dictate which areas must adhere to wildfire-resistant building codes tend to be controversial because they impact millions of people—-potentially affecting property values, insurance premiums, and housing markets, all while sparking debate over the maps’ accuracy, the impacts of climate change, and the overall burden on homeowners.

Project Purpose

This project examines the communication and engagement strategies used to convey the geographic distribution of wildfire risk to local communities in the context of statewide wildfire building codes. Specifically, the project seeks to understand:

• The timeline of wildfire building code development and adoption across the states of interest (Colorado, California, Oregon, and Utah).
• When and how communities were engaged throughout the legislative and code development process within each state.
• Whether maps were incorporated into legislation or supporting materials, and what information those maps communicated.
• The challenges and local capacity in rural communities across Colorado, as a case study. 

Expected Outcomes  

This project is expected to produce fact sheets answering the points above for four western states (California, Colorado, Oregon, and Utah), an annotated bibliography of relevant risk communication literature, as well as a comparative report related to the Colorado case study. Additional products will be explored as the project evolves. 

Project Team

Graduate Research Assistant: Denise Chavez Reyes, Kansas State University, Bill Anderson Fund Fellow 

Project Mentor: Ryan Handy, Headwaters Economics

Project Supervisor: Nnenia Campbell, Ph.D., Bill Anderson Fund

Project Collaborators: Patty Hernandez, Headwaters Economics | Kelly Pohl, Headwaters Economics