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Author(s):
Angelo M. Sisante, Michael H. Taylor, Kimberly Rollins
Year Published:

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Fire Policy & Law
Fire & Economics
Risk
Wildland Urban Interface

NRFSN number: 20377
Record updated:

This article analyses homeowners’ decisions to undertake fire-safe investments and create defensible space on their property using a unique dataset from 35 wildland–urban interface communities in Nevada. The dataset combines homeowner information from a mail survey with their observed fire-safe investments obtained through parcel-level hazard assessments. We find that homeowners’ self-reported mitigation expenditures are driven by their subjective beliefs about their wildfire risk, whereas observed defensible space status is driven by their costs of investment. We develop a theoretical model of a homeowner’s fire-safe investment decision that accounts for our empirical results.

Citation

Sisante AM, Taylor MH, and Rollins KS. 2019. Understanding homeowners' decisions to mitigate wildfire risk and create defensible space. International Journal of Wildland Fire 28 (11): 901-911. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF18201

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