CCST Seeking Expert Nominations for Wildfire Study

CCST has received funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Moore Foundation) to produce a peer-reviewed report on the costs and losses of wildfires in California. The report will identify key questions of interest to decision makers and will conduct a literature review of existing datasets and studies that enumerate costs of wildfire management and wildfire-related losses in the state. Questions likely to be addressed in this study include, but are not limited to:

1. What are the impacts of wildfires California?
2. What are the existing databases tracking costs or losses of wildfires?
3. What are the studies analyzing the costs and losses of wildfire?
4. What are the key questions of interest to stakeholders to better inform policy decisions related to wildfires?

CCST seeks nominations of individuals with expertise relevant to the following topics to serve in various roles in support of this study, such as steering committee members, authors, report monitors, and peer reviewers:

• Economic modeling of costs and losses of natural disasters including wildfires
• Costs associated with wildfire management:
  • Prevention (education, training, detection, enforcement, public safety power shutoffs, etc)
  • Mitigation (fuels management, infrastructure hardening, insurance, disaster assistance, etc)
  • Suppression (local, state, and federal entities)
  • Cross Cutting (legal, research and development, building codes, regulations, etc)

• Losses from wildfire: 
  • Direct

• • • Death and injuries, including psychological impacts
    • Structure and infrastructure loss
    • Environmental impacts (vegetation loss, watershed and soil impacts, etc)
    • Loss of natural resources and agriculture
    • Remediation and cleanup

• • Indirect
    • General economic impacts (business interruption, population decline)
    • Supply chain impacts
    • Evacuation costs
    • Interruption of services (utilities, transportation, government)
    • Psychological impacts from lost amenities
    • Housing market impacts
    • Loss of ecosystem services
    • Increased risk of other hazards (mudslide, falling trees, etc)
    • Decrease in Tax Base
    • Health and Environmental impacts of fire suppression efforts (retardants, etc)

The final scope of the study is currently under development. CCST is seeking nominations of individuals with relevant expertise to serve in various roles in support of this study, including steering committee members, authors, report monitors, and peer reviewers. Please reach out to us if you know of an expert or dataset that would be relevant.

By Friday, December 20th, please send names, affiliations, relevant areas of expertise (see bullets above) and contact information for individuals who are qualified to serve in support of this study. Self-nominations are welcome.

Send all nominees to Brie Lindsey at [email protected].