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Search Publications by: David Butry (Fed)

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Displaying 51 - 75 of 83

Strategic Roadmap for Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings and Communities

April 18, 2012
Author(s)
Anthony P. Hamins, Jason D. Averill, Richard G. Gann, Nelson P. Bryner, Rick D. Davis, David T. Butry, Alexander Maranghides, Jiann C. Yang, Daniel M. Madrzykowski, Matthew F. Bundy, Samuel L. Manzello, Jeffrey W. Gilman, Francine K. Amon, William E. Mell
The burden of fire on the U.S. economy continues to be large, comprising approximately $280 billion annually, or 2 percent of GDP. Over the last 30 years, civilian fire deaths and injuries have decreased due to the efforts of many people and organizations

Wildland Fires within Municipal Jurisdictions

January 1, 2012
Author(s)
Douglas S. Thomas, David T. Butry
Each year, wildland fires threaten structures and occupants of the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Currently, wildfire ignition estimates largely exclude ignitions originating within municipal jurisdictions, whose jurisdiction encompasses the majority of

Tracking the National Fire Problem: The Data behind the Statistics

November 21, 2011
Author(s)
Douglas S. Thomas, David T. Butry
The objective of this report is to support the development of descriptive statistics and associated measures of uncertainty for characterizing, tracking, and better understanding the root causes of the U.S. fire burden by identifying the relevant costs and

Enticing arsonists with broken windows and social disorder

January 6, 2011
Author(s)
Douglas Thomas, David Butry, Jeffrey P. Prestemon
Arson rates vary widely across the U.S., and much of this variation can be traced to fuel and weather factors related to ignition success and socioeconomic factors shown to influence crime rates. In criminology, it is well understood that indicators of

Urban trees and the risk of poor birth outcomes

January 1, 2011
Author(s)
Geoffrey Donovan, Yvonne Michael, David Butry, Amy Sullivan, John Chase
This paper investigated whether greater tree-canopy cover is associated with reduced risk of poor birth outcomes in Portland, Oregon. Residential addresses were geocoded and linked to classified-aerial imagery to calculate percentage tree canopy in 50, 100

Economics of Egress Alternatives and Life-Safety Costs

September 30, 2010
Author(s)
Robert E. Chapman, David T. Butry, Allison L. Huang, Douglas S. Thomas
Fire protection measures are needed to maintain the safety and integrity of the Nation s building stock and to limit loss of life and property when building fires do occur. Statistics published by the National Fire Protection Association demonstrate that

The effect of shade trees on summertime electricity use in Sacramento, California

September 1, 2010
Author(s)
Geoffrey Donovan, David Butry, Joshua D. Kneifel
Although previous studies have shown that shade trees can reduce summertime electricity use, none have compared these reductions to other common energy-conservation measures. We demonstrate that a 30-year old tree planted on the west side of a house in

Economic optimization of wildfire intervention activities

August 1, 2010
Author(s)
David T. Butry, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Karen L. Abt, Rhonda Sutphen
We describe how two important tools of wildfire management, wildfire prevention education and prescribed fire for fuels management, can be coordinated to minimize the combination of management costs and expected societal losses resulting from wildland fire

Optimal timing of wildfire prevention education

June 23, 2010
Author(s)
David T. Butry, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Karen L. Abt
Public outreach and wildfire education activities have been shown to limit the number of unintentional human-caused ignitions (i.e., accidental wildfires). Such activities include the airing of public service announcements, visiting with homeowners in at

Measuring and improving U.S. construction productivity

May 10, 2010
Author(s)
Robert E. Chapman, David T. Butry, Allison L. Huang
Although the construction industry is a major component of the U.S. economy, it has experienced a prolonged period of decline in productivity. Due to the critical lack of measurement methods, however, the magnitude of the productivity problem in the U.S

The wildland-urban interface fire problem - Current approaches and Research Needs

March 1, 2010
Author(s)
William E. Mell, Samuel L. Manzello, Alexander Maranghides, David T. Butry, Ronald G. Rehm
Wildfires that spread into wildland-urban interface (WUI) communities present significant challenges on a number of fronts. In the United States the WUI accounts for a significant portion of wildland fire suppression and wildland fuel treatment costs

Proceedings of the 2009 Workshop on Innovative Fire Protection

February 17, 2010
Author(s)
Anthony P. Hamins, Francine K. Amon, Jason D. Averill, Nelson P. Bryner, David T. Butry, Rick D. Davis, Richard G. Gann, Jeffrey W. Gilman, Samuel L. Manzello, Randall J. McDermott, William E. Mell, Nathan D. Marsh
The Innovative Fire Protection Workshop was held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on June 4 and 5, 2009. The 70 participants represented a broad range of stakeholder perspectives, including various non-profit, academic, industry

Wildfire Prevention Efficacy: Marginal and Non-marginal Benefit-Cost Ratios

February 1, 2010
Author(s)
Jeffrey P. Prestemon, David Butry, Karen L. Abt, Rhonda Sutphen
Fire prevention education efforts involve a variety of methods intended to reduce the number of accidentally ignited wildfires, including public service announcements, distributing brochures and making presentations. A Poisson model of Florida fire

Benefits and Costs of Research: A Case Study of Improved Service Life Prediction

October 15, 2009
Author(s)
Robert E. Chapman, David T. Butry, Allison L. Huang, Douglas S. Thomas
This report focuses on a critical analysis of the economic impacts of research conducted by BFRL s Service Life Prediction (SLP) Program for High-Performance Polymeric Construction Materials. The SLP Program is an interdisciplinary research effort within