GIS-supported modelling and diagnosis of fire risk at the wildland urban interface. A methodological approach for operational management

The recent evolution of the rural and urban areas has led to the progressive emergence of a complex and multiform wildland urban interface. Today this interface has turned into a fire threat which is omnipresent The evolution in progress raises in particular the question of the safety of the people and goods and, more generally, that of the management and durability of development of these territories. Taking into account these problems in installation and planning tasks requires a risk analysis, which is often too complex to be implemented by traditional techniques. The recourse to GIS-supported modelling is tested here as an integrated, dynamic and operational tool for spatial diagnosis, display and recommendation as regards to risk management. This chapter describes the original approach that was implemented, the constitution of the data base, and the resulting diagnosis and display of risk created by the model. © 2008, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.