摘要：At their worst, fires at the rural–urban or wildland–urban interface cause tragic loss of
human lives and homes, but mitigating these fire effects through management elicits many
social and scientific challenges. This paper addresses four interconnected management
challenges posed by socially disastrous landscape fires. The issues concern various assets
(particularly houses, human life and biodiversity), fuel treatments, and fire and human
behaviours. The topics considered are: 'asset protection zones'; 'defensible space' and urban
fire spread in relation to house ignition and loss; 'stay-or-go' policy and the prediction of
time available for safe egress and the possible conflict between the creation of
defensible space and wildland management objectives. The first scientific challenge is
to model the effective width of an asset protection zone of an urban area. The
second is to consider the effect of vegetation around a house, potentially defensible
space, on fire arrival at the structure. The third scientific challenge is to present
stakeholders with accurate information on rates of spread, and where the fire front
is located, so as to allow them to plan safe egress or preparation time in their
particular circumstances. The fourth scientific challenge is to be able to predict the
effects of fires on wildland species composition. Associated with each scientific
challenge is a social challenge: for the first two scientific challenges the social
challenge is to co-ordinate fuel management within and between the urban and rural
or wildland sides of the interface. For the third scientific challenge, the social
challenge is to be aware of, and appropriately use, fire danger information so that the
potential for safe egress from a home can be estimated most accurately. Finally, the
fourth social challenge is to for local residents of wildland–urban interfaces with an
interest in biodiversity conservation to understand the effects of fire regimes on
biodiversity, thereby assisting hard-pressed wildland managers to make informed choices.
