Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) national guidance support

Client: National Research Council (NRC) Canada
Date: 2019 - 2020
Approximate construction value: $18k
Location: Canada

The Canadian government’s National Research Council Canada (NRC) organized a technical committee (TC) to develop a WUI guide that could be used by provinces and territories, as well as local municipal jurisdictions, as appropriate. The work undertaken by movement strategies (MS) focused on developing parts of a draft document and reviewing other parts, focusing solely on the community resources and design component (chapter) of the overall WUI guide, including existing / expected community population, size, type and configuration, and access routes in a Canadian context and similar to code language as much as possible.

• Existing & expected community population
• Siting and structure density
• Water supply
• Land uses
• Utilities and critical infrastructure
• Maintenance & management
• Emergency planning and communication strategies
• Access routes

The specific tasks completed by MS included the following:

1. In coordination with NRC and the task group on community resources and design, MS developed a structure and a table of contents for the document (chapter) that addressed the content highlighted below. 
2. Developed the contents for sections on: Overview, demographics, land uses, siting and structure density. 
3. Reviewed and cited relevant supplementary documents and referenced standards and best practices, as needed. 
4. Provided sufficient commentary to clarify any complex guidance. 
5. Reviewed content regarding access, water supply, utilities and critical infrastructure, maintenance/management, as well as the planning and outreach section of the guide. 
6. Reviewed overall content for alignment/conflicts with canadian national codes or existing practices. 
7. Identified the critical concepts and their preferred terms that need to be defined, provided references to definitions in other national documents, or developed an appropriate definition if no definition exists, or a revision to the existing definitions are deemed not sufficient. 
8. Developed a draft document and provided an executive summary report along with the drafted document. 

The primary objectives of the work were to draft sections of a document based on guidance from the task group on community resources and design, reviewed other sections produced by members of the task group and ensured that the text produced aligned with the canadian codes and regulatory environment: 

1. Community resources and design section of the guide

• Draft text providing an overview (e.g., of land-use planning concepts for WUI fires, planning for multiple scales, timing, alignment with other community planning objectives).
• Draft text on existing community profiles (demographics, land uses, siting and structure density).
• Review text produced by task group, e.g., regarding access, water supply, utilities and critical infrastructure, maintenance/management

2. Planning and outreach section of the guide

• Draft text providing an overview (e.g., of land-use planning concepts for WUI fires, planning for multiple scales, timing, alignment with other community planning objectives).
• Draft text on existing community profiles (demographics, land uses, siting and structure density).
• Review text produced by task group, e.g., regarding access, water supply, utilities and critical infrastructure, maintenance/management.