## 3 Results
### Participants' Perception Related to Wildland Fire-Induced Risks and Its Mitigation
#### 3.2.5 Participants' Own/Additional Views  
In response to our open-ended question entitled, \"If not pointed out in the scope of the earlier questions, what you additionally consider that may potentially reduce the forest fire-induced risks to the communities located in the heart of forested land in case of its sustainability, redesign and new developments of such localities.\", we observed that about 70% of the participants provided additional feedback that could be categorized into several themes. For example: (i) importance of multiple exit routes (alternate access road) in case of disaster/emergency evacuation; (ii) use of fire resistive/non-combustible construction materials; (iii) adoption of public education/outreach for FireSmart practices [52]; (iv) forest, WUI, and fire management that include forest thinning, increasing bylaw patrols for misuse of the WUI with off-highway vehicles, taking precautionary measures during hot seasons to proactively identify fire and nip them in the bud before spreading towards the community, posting more signs and creating awareness during the fire season; and (v) potential characteristics of buffer zones. In the case of the 'buffer zones' theme, the participants provided numerous ideas, where some of the noteworthy ones are as follows:  
* _\"Industry sites were largely unaffected by fire due to having large buffer zones around them.\",_
* _\"Provincial support (would be required) in allocating greater buffer zones around municipalities.\",_
* _\"Fort McMurray is a hilly area with landscape created in last ice age. So new communities can be extended to the end of top of a hill with cleared safe zone in the downhill. Even 100 m safe zone would have little with fire & wind on flat areas next to continuous forest.\";_
* _\"Build high rise apartment building (brick/steal) within smaller area and leave more space between community and wildland.\";_ and
* _\"Use of other means like wetlands as buffer which may not require huge width.\"_ Though, one of the participants acknowledged the effectiveness of the buffer zones; however, suggested considering the use of fire resistive construction materials as well. According to this participant, the quote read as, _\"... distance in separation_ (i.e., buffer zones between buildings and forest) _addresses thermal heat transfer, what it does not protect against the fire ember transfer that can travel up to a kilometre. The use of non-combustible building construction reduces ignition which reduces fire generation which reduces heat generation. Consider the use of natural vegetation species that are resistant to fire.\"_ Another quote about future wildland fire risk management stated like, _\"managing future wildfire risk requires an interface between human decision processes and knowledge about climate trends related to fire, as well as humans' abilities to anticipate wildfire potential and mitigation approaches are critical.\"_. Finally, it would be worthwhile to note that several complimentary comments were observed, such as, _\"Potential scopes are addressed already\"_, _\"Most of the key points are addressed here\"_, and _\"I am encouraged by your line of questioning and thought process.\"_.