Examining Post-Fire Perceptions of Selected Mitigation Strategies after the 2016 Horse River Wildland Fire in Alberta, Canada  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (K.R.R. ); mohammad.ahmed2@ucalgaryca (M.R.A.) 1 Department of Geographics Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (K.R.R. ); mohammad.ahmed2@ucalgaryca (M.R.A.) 1 Department of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (K.R.R. Wildland fire risk is commonly associated with the wildland-urban interface (WUI) in fire-prone countries around the world. The WUI is defined as the line, area, or zone where community structures intermingle with undeveloped/unmanaged vegetation (i.e., fuels) [9; 10; 11; 12; 13]. Wildland fires in the WUI showed their cruelty to the communities by destroying homes and structures and killing people in many countries, including the USA (2003 and 2007 wildfires in Southern California), 2007 Greek wildfires, and 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Australia [14; 15; 16]. To minimize the risk and protect homes and communities from wildland fires, different countries apply various methods of managing the WUI [10; 11; 17]. For example, in addition to \"Prepare, Stay and Defend or Early Leave\" (also known as \"Stay or Go\") preparedness policy [18; 19] in Australia, wildfires (bushfires) risk reduction strategies for communities included four categories, such as land management, building management, community education, and fire danger warnings [20]. Here, land management is primarily concerned with vegetation management. In the United States of America (USA), the Firewise USA program considers management up to 61 m (200 feet) from a home's foundation for risk reduction, known as Home Ignition Zone (HIZ), in addition to using fire-resistant building materials for the homes [17; 21]. The HIZ includes three zones around a house, such as immediate zone (0 to 1.5 m), intermediate zone (1.5 to 9 m), and extended zone (9 to 31 m, out to 61 m). While the immediate zone is a non-combustible area, i.e., not keeping any burning or combustible materials, the other two zones (i.e., intermediate and extended) are about managing landscape/hardscape in terms of vegetation. Furthermore, Canada practices similar methods for managing the WUI using several guidelines, known as FireSmart Canada. To address the threat of wildland fire for the communities in Canada and reduce the risks from it, the FireSmart program comprises of seven disciplines, such as vegetation management, development, education, cross-training legislation, emergency planning, and interagency cooperation [22]. All disciplines are very important for reducing risks from wildland fires; however, vegetation management is a priority in developing landscapes at the WUI. Landscape development to protect communities is known as FireSmart protection that addresses strategic planning of three FireSmart zones, such as interface, community (about 10 km depending on local forest conditions), and landscape (more than 10 km) zones. Here, the WUI is the interface zone that extends up to 100 m around a building, group of buildings, or the foundation [11; 23]. This interface zone (also known as HIZ) is further divided into four Priority Zones, such as Zone 1a (non-combustible zone; 0-1.5 m), Zone 1 (1.5-10 m), Zone 2 (10-30 m), and Zone 3 (30-100 m) [11; 23]. Here, Zone 1a reduces the home ignition chance through combustible materials around due to flying amber during a wildland fire. Clearing any vegetation and combustible materials in this zone down to the mineral soil could satisfy the criteria [23; 24]. The other three Zones are related to managing vegetation in different patterns, meeting some suggested criteria. For instance, Zone 1 should not have any vegetation, but can only include low density and fire-resistant plants, shrubs, grass, mulch, and other materials.