Abstract
As the effects of climate change make catastrophic wildfires more frequent and intense, impacting an increasing number of regions worldwide, urban sprawl has significantly expanded areas at risk. In the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where developed areas closely border natural landscapes, the vulnerability of people and assets is on the rise. These regions require adaptive solutions that involve rethinking land use and daily living practices. This work aims to examine prevention strategies to reduce human vulnerability by analyzing urban planning policies, governance decision-making, and resident engagement in managing their properties and neighborhoods. This research employs a comparative approach between France and Australia, focusing on the metropolitan areas of Aix-Marseille and Melbourne.A chronological examination of legislation across ten Mediterranean-climate countries contextualizes the emergence of wildfire prevention issues within urban planning and provides a foundation for comparing regulatory prevention instruments in France and the State of Victoria. Within the framework of French prevention doctrine, we examine expectations for mapping built areas exposed to wildfire hazard and propose a new approach to defining vulnerable urban areas based on their spatial structure. We then incorporate a social dimension to the vulnerability by using the landscape, as defined by the European Landscape Convention, as a tool to analyse interactions between a place and its community. In a socio-spatial study, we examine residents’ expertise on wildfire risk and their preventive adaptations within urban fringes of Greater Melbourne. Landscape also serves as a tool for engagement, as demonstrated through a participatory landscape mediation process on wildfire risk with local stakeholders in Métropole Aix-Marseille Provence. Here, landscape provides a tangible framework and common ground, encouraging residents’ involvement in vulnerability reduction and facilitating interactions with local governments and land management agencies.The conclusion addresses the practical applicability of several findings from this research, including landscape morphology analysis to assess neighborhoods vulnerability and the use of the landscape as a medium for dialogue and preventive actions at community scale.