@article {bnh-7836, title = {Integrating wildfire risk management and spatial planning {\textendash} A historical review of two Australian planning systems}, journal = {International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction}, volume = {53}, year = {2021}, month = {02/2021}, abstract = {

Recent wildfires burning throughout Australia highlight the vulnerability of settlements located in wildland urban interface (WUI) areas. Spatial planning has a critical role in operationalising wildfire risk reduction considerations in a territorial manner across the WUI. Accordingly, more integrated approaches to wildfire management and spatial planning are necessary. However, there is limited literature examining the historical interactions between wildfire and spatial planning policy sectors and how institutions and policy instruments adapt over time to integrate mutually dependent considerations. To address this gap, this research examines how Australian spatial planning institutions and instruments evolved since European settlement to incorporate wildfire considerations, through a qualitative comparative case study approach of two Australian states. Based on the findings of the case study comparison, this paper presents a conceptual framework of the pathways towards increased policy integration of spatial planning and wildfire risk reduction that consists of six phases. It is argued that the path to greater policy integration is grounded on the development of common knowledge, a cross-disciplinary understanding, and agreed policy goals between different policy sectors, that, with time, translate into new institutional arrangements and instruments that integrate the work and decision-making processes of different sectors.

}, keywords = {Disaster risk management, governance, Integration, Spatial planningm Urban planning, Wildfire}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101984}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420920314862?dgcid=coauthor}, author = {Constanza Gonzalez-Mathiesen and Simone Ruane and Alan March} } @mastersthesis {bnh-8095, title = {Spatial planning to promote settlements{\textquoteright} resilience to bushfires}, volume = {Doctor of Philosophy}, year = {2021}, month = {03/2021}, school = {University of Melbourne}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Bushfire hazards can pose significant risks at bushfire-prone urban-rural interfaces and peri-urban areas, highlighting the need to manage bushfire risk in relation to settlements{\textquoteright} planning and governance. Settlements{\textquoteright} resilience to bushfires can be purposively facilitated by the development and application of bushfire risk management knowledge. Spatial planning has the potential to support learning about and acting upon changing conditions and new bushfire information to promote settlements{\textquoteright} resilience to bushfires. However, the translation of new bushfire knowledge into meaningful spatial planning practices has been limited and spatial planning systems often struggle to integrate bushfire risk management. Thus, this research aims to contribute to understandings of spatial planning ability to improve its practices by identifying, reframing, and putting into action new considerations about bushfire risk management to promote settlements{\textquoteright} resilience to bushfires.

This research used an inductive qualitative research approach employing two case studies: the spatial planning systems of Chile and Victoria (Australia). Qualitative data was collected from documentation, archival records, and semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed using time-series analysis, qualitative content analysis, and cross-case synthesis techniques. The research was divided into four stages, two stages correspond to the individual case study analysis and the remaining two to cross-case synthesis and discussion.

The research concludes that the Chilean and Victorian spatial planning systems are still constrained in their promotion of settlements{\textquoteright} resilience to bushfires due to internal and external complexities that frame and limit their ability for bushfire risk management. In Chile, there have been several mostly unsuccessful attempts to integrate bushfire considerations into the spatial planning system, thus the current system only outlines spatial planning mechanisms for bushfire risk management generically and inapplicably. In Victoria, the spatial planning system has partially and progressively improved its ways for dealing with bushfires, however, the current system still considers bushfire risk management partially and sometimes ambiguously. In practice, this implies that both spatial planning systems are sometimes allowing and even promoting settlements patterns that perpetuate bushfire risks.

Based on a cross-case synthesis, the research concludes that spatial planning instruments that comprehensively address bushfires are necessary, suggesting an integrated approach that undertakes bushfire risk management at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels of planning mechanisms and processes. This approach establishes the instruments{\textquoteright} role in bushfire risk management and other factors that provide directions for improving their ability to promote settlements{\textquoteright} resilience to bushfire. Furthermore, the research also concludes that reflexive processes are not always conducive to the development and improvement of spatial planning systems for bushfire risk management, due to the variance of willingness, understanding, and capacity issues within the system and in the wider context. Accordingly, thesis propositions about the barriers and facilitators that influence spatial planning progressing from the identification, to the reframing and implementation of change about bushfire risk management were suggested.

}, keywords = {Bushfire, disaster risk managemet, Disaster risk reduction, resilience, spatial planning, urban planning, Wildfire}, url = {https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/267371}, author = {Constanza Gonzalez-Mathiesen} } @inbook {bnh-7381, title = {Developing guidelines for increasing the resilience of informal settlements exposed to wildfire risk using a risk-based planning approach}, booktitle = {Understanding Disaster Risk: A Multidimensional Approach}, year = {2020}, pages = {159-178}, publisher = { Elsevier}, organization = { Elsevier}, chapter = {2.1}, abstract = {

Internationally, there is an increasing concern with the development of improved ways of dealing with disasters (UNISDR, 2015). Wildfires bring about greater disaster risks at the urban-rural interface of wildfire-prone areas, where lives and properties are more exposed. These risks are often greater in contexts of informality, where settlements have been built with limited consideration of risks. This chapter reports on the production of guidelines to develop resilience to wildfires for communities living in informal settlements exposed to wildfire risk. It responds to Sendai Framework for Action{\textquoteright}s priority one {\textquotedblleft}understanding disaster risk{\textquotedblright} (UNISDR, 2015, p. 15). The investigation is approached through participatory action research. It is the result of a collaboration between diverse stakeholders during the seminar {\textquotedblleft}Prevention of Forest Fire Risks in Urban Settlements and Buildings: A Planning and Design Approach.{\textquotedblright} The study case is Ag{\"u}ita de la Perdiz, in Concepcion, Chile, an informal settlement with ongoing wildfire risk. The seminar{\textquoteright}s product is condensed in a set of guidelines. These guidelines{\textemdash}and the process of producing them{\textemdash}are expected to contribute to disseminating knowledge about general design and planning strategies to mitigate wildfire risk as well as to strengthen local capacities. It is argued that the collaborative process undertaken to develop the guidelines is replicable in other places to address context-specific issues.

}, keywords = {community engagement, Informal settlements, Local communities, spatial planning, urban planning, wildfires}, issn = {978-0-12-819047-0}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819047-0.00002-0}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128190470000020}, author = {Constanza Gonzalez-Mathiesen and Alan March} } @article {bnh-6294, title = {Challenges for wildfire-prone urban-rural interfaces: The case of Melbourne}, journal = {Urbano}, volume = {22}, year = {2019}, month = {04/2019}, pages = {88-105}, abstract = {

Wildfires are an ever-increasing threat for many residents of urban-rural interfaces located in wildfire-prone areas. Spatial planning is an important aspect of contending with wildfire risk, as it has the potential to modify the design, location and\ characteristics of settlements. However, planning systems can struggle to integrate actions to this end. Using a case-study methodology, this paper reflects on treatment responses to key wildfire risk factors in urban-rural interfaces and the challenges associated with this task. It analyses the case of Melbourne from the perspective of the spatial planning mechanisms addressing wildfire risk that are related to physical structures and the roles of agencies. The physical risk treatment responses are examined considering mapping, strategic actions and decision-making processes. Finally, the following challenges faced by spatial planning mechanisms when addressing wildfire risk are also highlighted: the direct and indirect influence of politics, other planning demands that compete with and slow risk management, implementation limitations, and problems associated with the legacy of risk in existing settlements.

}, keywords = {Disaster risk, peri-urban, spatial planning, Wildfire}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.22320/07183607.2019.22.39.05}, url = {http://revistas.ubiobio.cl/index.php/RU/article/view/3309}, author = {Constanza Gonzalez-Mathiesen and Alan March and Janet Stanley} } @article {bnh-6221, title = {Urban planning: historical changes integrating bushfire risk management in Victoria}, journal = {Australian Journal of Emergency Management}, volume = {34}, year = {2019}, month = {07/2019}, pages = {60-66}, abstract = {

Bushfires represent an increased risk for people and properties in exposed urban areas. The integration of bushfire risk management considerations into urban planning is one of the approaches used to address this challenge. This paper summarises the key changes in urban planning and building regulations that were introduced in Victoria over time to minimise the effects of bushfire on settlements. These have generally occurred within four main eras, being the independent origins of planning and bushfire risk management, the progressive emergence of bushfire risk management into urban planning between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, the formalisation of bushfire risk management via urban planning with the Wildfire Management Overlay in 1997 and the 2011 reforms associated with the Bushfire Management Overlay and its following adjustments. Advancements in urban planning regulation have usually occurred after bushfire events that inflicted significant losses on communities. These changes represent an ongoing trend towards the integration of bushfire risk reduction measures into urban planning mechanisms.

}, keywords = {Bushfire, risk management, urban planning}, url = {Australian Journal of Emergency Management}, author = {Constanza Gonzalez-Mathiesen and Alan March and Justin Leonard and Mark Holland and Blanchi, Raphaele} } @article {bnh-6331, title = {Establishing Design Principles for Wildfire Resilient Urban Planning}, journal = {Planning Practice and Research}, volume = {33}, year = {2018}, month = {02/2019}, pages = {97-119}, abstract = {

This study elaborates on the built and natural environment disciplines{\textquoteright} potential to develop applied understandings of resilience, using the example of land-use planning design guides in wildfire-prone areas. It argues that land-use planning can develop and apply spatial and physical resilience principles to disasters, contributing to developing meaningful ways of achieving resilience by bridging the space between overarching goals and the specificity of individual contexts, focusing on physical resistance. It concludes that there are nine design principles that can improve settlements resilience in wildfire-prone areas to reduce risks, organized under two major categories: acting on resistance and facilitating response.

}, keywords = {disaster, land-use planning, resilience, Wildfire}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2018.1429787}, url = {https://rsa.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02697459.2018.1429787$\#$.XfrID49xXb0}, author = {Constanza Gonzalez-Mathiesen and Alan March} }