The day’s final panel was moderated by Andy Jones, Science Advisor to the California Natural Resources Secretary. He was joined by:
- Alex Hall, Director of UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Faculty Director of the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge;
- Travis Longcore, Senior Associate Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability;
- David Eisenman, MD, Director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters; and
- Jeffrey Inaba, Adjunct Professor with UCLA Architecture and Urban Design
This panel brought together another group with a wide range of expertise to get a holistic view of the problem from multiple angles.
The challenge: Policy interventions in Sacramento tend to be incremental, but the outcomes we need are systems-level. How do we get from one to the other?
Each panelist brought decades of experience with disasters to bear on the conversation. The conversation ranged from the specific architectural interventions that are possible to questions about land use and its role in promoting a more resilient Southern California and tackling the challenge of instituting policies that reduce ignition points.
In disasters, what saves communities are the communities themselves—either through new grassroots organizations that emerge, or existing ones that repurpose and extend. Engaging and building trust with those organizations and leaders—and engaging in genuine bidirectional community engagement is key.
The bottom line: Wildfire resilience in Southern California will not be solved by any single intervention. It requires the right theory, the right science aimed at the right questions, trusted community relationships built before the next disaster, and sustained institutional commitment long after the cameras leave.