Managing fire risk at the wildland-urban interface requires reconciliation of trade-offs between regulating and cultural services

The objective of the study was twofold:

1. To understand people’s connections to the wadis and green areas of the Haifa area and how different vegetation management strategies to reduce fire risk in the city may affect these relationships.

2. Tto understand the role of different assemblages of vegetation in determining fire risk in the wadis of Haifa and the effectiveness of five selected vegetation management strategies to reduce risk in the city.

We interviewed users of the green open spaces of Haifa and fire experts with knowledge about the local conditions determining fire risk in the city to identify potential tradeoffs between the cultural value of the city green areas and the need to manage them to reduce fire risk.