Introduction
The residents of Metro Vancouver are blessed to have extensive areas of wilderness in close proximity to our urban areas. However, we are careless - with approximately 2000 wildfires every year, about half are caused by people, and this in turn can present a risk to structures close to these areas. These areas where wilderness meets urbanized land is called the wildland/urban interface, and is a bridge between urban fires and wildfires.
Fires do not only start in forest areas, but also within our cities. Looking back in Vancouver's history, fire destroyed most of Vancouver on June 13, 1886, shortly after the city had been incorporated. With only two out of the original 400 buildings remaining after the event, all new buildings were constructed out of materials resistant to fire. Some of the activities we use the land for are inherently hazardous with regards to fire, such as coal mining, or transportation of natural gas.
In order for a fire to start, fuel, oxygen, and heat must be present. Factors such as spacing, amoung and size of fuel materials, and speed at which the materials burn affect how long a fire can last and how hard it is to control. Other factors include weather and geography. For example, wet weather obviously makes it harder to start a fire, and makes it easier to control ones that do start, whereas warm weather drys out vegetation, making them susceptible to ignition. Slope is one of the primary geological factor in fire spread, with steeper slopers causing fire to spread more quickly. This is due to several factors, including convection from the fire's heat causing air flow that blows fires upward to fuel, fuel uphill being closer to the source of the fire, and burning embers or fuel rolling downhill and spreading the fire.
This project attempts to combine geological and human geographic variables to assess fire hazard in the Metro Vancouver region.