Disaster risk management tipping points: Impacts of extreme wildfire events and the resulting need for layered disaster risk management solutions

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Extreme wildfire events (EWEs) thereby pose new challenges and limits to managing disaster risk. This refers not only to response operations but also to “conventional” preventive measures such as the creation of buffer zones that may no longer be effective. This paper depicts several limits of conventional wildfire risk management measures towards EWEs and introduces the concept of disaster risk management tipping points (DRM TPs) as critical thresholds that necessitate a revised set of disaster risk management strategies.

Building on a bibliographic review, we depict the novelty of the concept and apply it to selected illustrative examples. We propose that this conceptualization is useful when developing “layered” or diversified risk management approaches for different types of wildfire events including extremes. It may also leverage and shift the discussion around responsibilities in managing risk in terms of public versus individual contributions, the distribution of investments as well as related aspects of justice.