Wildfires pose an ever-present and increasing threat to the well-being of communities, their infrastructure, and their economies, particularly in the Western United States. Wildfire seasons over the last few years have been the most destructive in history. Each year has proven more destructive than the last. Unfortunately, wildfire severity is expected to increase further due to climate change.
Improvements to the built environment, and increasing the resilience of buildings to fire, can help keep people and structures safe in the face of growing wildfire risk. To that end, the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center and the UC Davis Climate Adaptation Research Center are hosting a conference to address wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire risks inherent to the built environment. The Wildfire Resilient Structures (WiReS) Conference, to be held in San Diego from February 7–10, 2023, will present the latest applied science, knowledge, and technology advancements in fire resilience to decision makers at the local, regional, and state levels. By implementing improvements through education, the conference will support resilient and equitable communities.
Topics to be covered include:
- Land use planning & code development
- Design of new buildings
- Retrofit of existing buildings
- Defensible space development and maintenance
- WUI code and policy development
- Community recovery
- Exposure assessment and mitigation
The full conference program is available here.
Conference goals
- To bring together stakeholders, including researchers, architects, engineers, manufacturers, building officials, first responders, building and materials industry representatives, government representatives, tribal representatives, homeowners, insurers, realtors, and lenders to identify major roadblocks to improving wildfire resilience of our buildings.
- Propose new short-term and long-term solutions based on state-of-the-art technologies, scientific developments, and best practices.
- Accelerate the transfer of advanced wildfire risk mitigation techniques for buildings from research to practice.
- Guide future research, technology advances, and policy development to shore up communities against the increasing challenges of wildfires.
Conference details
Dates: February 7–10, 2023
Location: Mission Valley, San Diego, California
Venue & Hotel Name: Town and Country Resort
Hybrid options are available for virtual attendees
Registration
Register for the WiReS Conference here.
UC employees and students can receive 50% off by using the code UC-CSU-Discount.