Wildfire Vulnerability of Hispanic & Latino Communities in Texas: A Bilingual Survey Instrument

This project analyzes the social and wildfire vulnerability of Hispanic and Latino populations living in Wildland Urban Interfaces (WUIs) of Texas. It will deploy a bilingual (Spanish-English) survey based on the Integrated Fire Management approach principles that prioritizes prevention and suppression strategies while considering social, economic, cultural, and ecological assessments. This approach has been instrumental "for planning and operational systems aiming at minimizing the damage from and maximizing the benefits of fire" (Fischer et al., 2016). The survey will also follow the Shared Wildfire Governance (SwG) paradigm that focuses on identifying the range of key actions necessary to 'thrive with fire,' emphasizing that wildfires can occur anywhere; however, the dynamics and vulnerabilities of socioecological systems vary across geographies and populations (Tedim et al.,
2019).
The study has followed four methodological stages: 1. Purposive literature review; 2. Questionnaire preparation guided by SwG principles and the iterative review and adjustments from the Texas Forest Service team; 3. Translation of the survey into Spanish; and 4. Publication of the instrument on the DesignSafe website. During this process, the research team has employed concepts and practices of convergent research (Peek et al., 2020) and co-production of knowledge (Kliskey et al., 2023) instrumental in advancing collaborative efforts to escalate the survey results in the Texas Forest Service and WUI regional coordinators. The survey is aligned with contemporary wildfire management and social vulnerability paradigms, potentially influencing updates to Texas Community Wildfire Protection Plan Guides (Texas A&M, Forest Service, 2012) and bilingual educational resources (e.g., Ready, Set, Go!).
The instruments can be distributed, remixed, adapted, and built upon any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creators. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.