Enhancing Arizona Roadways’ Resilience to Wildfire Through Vegetation Recovery

This study will explore whether ADOT landscaping and vegetation-management practices that encourage the recovery of native plant communities following wildfires can reduce both repair and maintenance costs for adjacent roadways. Wildfires can leave roadways susceptible to further damage from flooding, erosion, and debris flows over the long term because slow-growing native plant communities can take several years to fully recover. ADOT incurs significant expense when roadways are damaged by erosion or debris flows. In the meantime, non-native plant species that grow in disturbed ecosystems—such as buffelgrass, Sahara mustard, wild oats, and red brome—are often flammable and can actually increase the risk of future wildfires when they replace more fire-resistant native plant communities.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Programmed
• Contract Numbers:

  SPR-794

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Arizona Department of Transportation Research Center

  206 S. 17th Avenue
  ADOT Research Center
  Phoenix, AZ  United States  85007
• Project Managers:

  Proffitt, David

• Start Date: 20240101
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disaster resilience; Landscaping; Native plants; Roads; Vegetation control; Wildfires
• Geographic Terms: Arizona
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01902566
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Arizona Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: SPR-794
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Dec 18 2023 5:22PM