Governance of Land Use Planning to Reduce Fire Risk to Homes Mediterranean France and California

Susan D. Kocher and Butsic Van
Additional contact information
Susan D. Kocher: Central Sierra MCP, University of California Cooperative Extension, 1061 3rd Street, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150, USA
Butsic Van: Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Land, 2017, vol. 6, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Wildfire is a natural part of forested Mediterranean systems. As humans continue to live and build housing in these areas, wildfire is a constant threat to homes and lives. The goal of this paper is to describe aspects of land-use planning that are used to reduce wildfire risk in institutionally divergent regions; southern France and California. By reviewing relevant legislation and planning documents and conducting in person interviews with fire and planning professionals, we identify the institutions which participate in land use planning to reduce fire risk and the key laws and regulations that guide planning decisions. Our results indicate that France has a more centralized system for planning for fire, with national level entities heavily involved in local land use planning. California, on the other hand sees almost no federal oversite, and, while state law requires local plans to include wildfire risk, most fine grain decisions are left to local planners and decision makers. In both regions, however, we see a reliance on technical support provided from outside local jurisdictions. Increased coordination between local, regional, and national governments could improve land use planning in both locations.

Keywords: comparative study; institutions; national government; local government; land use; general plans; wildfire risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/6/2/24/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/6/2/24/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:6:y:2017:i:2:p:24-:d:94654

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().