In 2021, hundreds of wildfires burned across western Canada, posing a threat to buildings, infrastructure, and communities. The threat of Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires is growing as urban areas expand into wildlands, rural populations increase, and wildfires become more frequent and severe, partially due to climate change. An overview of the National Guide for WUI Fires that was recently published by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada will be presented. The Guide is intended to mitigate the growing risk of damage and loss due to WUI fires by improving the resilience of buildings and communities. Drawing on recent wildfire research and insights from international experts, the Guide provides comprehensive support for WUI areas in Canada, such as on hazard and exposure assessment, vegetation management, construction measures, community planning, and outreach. This guidance will help to minimize the impact of WUI fires by reducing their likelihood and severity, inhibiting their spread, and improving the effectiveness of community response. The presentation will also highlight the results of an impact analysis, carried out for the NRC by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, which indicated that, by adopting the Guide across Canada, approximately $4 would be saved for every $1 spent, and the potential cost savings are expected to increase with climate change.
SPEAKER BIO:
Dr. Noureddine Bénichou is a Principal Research Officer at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Carleton University in Civil and Environmental Engineering and is recognized as an international fire expert through extensive experimentation and modeling of fire phenomenon. His research areas include fire resistance modeling and experimentation of structures, fire safety in buildings, fire risk analysis, and wildfire impacts on the wildland-urban interface (WUI). He is the author of over 300 technical publications. Dr. Bénichou represents Canada in ISO Sub-Committee 4 on Fire Safety Engineering; is a member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, and Conseil International du Bâtiment; and is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carleton University.
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