Short and long-term responses: risk management through preparedness, mitigation, prevention and adaptation
Societies manage wildfire risk using four strategies. These range from stopping fires before they start, to helping communities live safely alongside fire in the long term.
Real World
The US Forest Service's prescribed burn programme in the American West deliberately ignites low-intensity fires to clear fuel loads — a long-term adaptation strategy borrowed from Indigenous land management practices used for thousands of years.
Exam Focus
Link each strategy to its timescale explicitly: 'prevention reduces risk before ignition, whereas adaptation reduces vulnerability over decades.'
Essay Framework
Use PEEL to structure every paragraph. Tap each step for guidance and an example.
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