Library

Article from The Earthbound Report on passive cooling design strategies for homes located in hot climates.

Wildfire guidance for homes located in the wildland urban interface, focused on site design and individual pieces of the home.

Ignition resistant residential construction and landscaping guidelines from FireSafe Montana.

Article from University of Arizona on keeping homes cool during extreme heat, both personal and system changes.

Guide describing landscaping tips for healthy and regionally-based gardens, including maintenance, mulching, water efficiency, and plant resources.

Paper describing vegetation impacts on cooling load for buildings.

Guide for homeowners describing actions they can take to modify their home and the surrounding site to create a survivable space to reduce the amount of damage a home would likely experience during a wildfire.

A webpage outlining CAL FIRE’s recommendations for creating defensible space.

Guidebook providing useful examples of high performance retrofit techniques for the building enclosure of wood frame residential construction in a cold and somewhat wet climate.

Paper describing energy savings in space cooling from shading condenser units.

Article describing mulch requirements and benefits.

Article describing mulching with lawn clippings.

Pamphlet describing different types of mulches and their benefits.

Online geospatial map with interactive viewer showing flood risk areas and base flood elevations

Report for local governments, planners, emergency managers, developers, insurers, and property owners describing ways to improve the wildfire resistance of buildings, infrastructure and communities in the wildland urban interface.

An NFPA Standard that identifies a method for determining the minimum water supply necessary for structural fire-fighting purposes in areas where it has been determined that there is no water or inadequate water for fire fighting.

An NFPA standards document that provides minimum requirements for the design, construction, installation, and maintenance of tanks and accessory equipment that supply water for private fire protection.

Report highlighting the evaluation methods used and extent of wind washing found in a study analyzing wind washing in thirty-two two-story homes.

Paper describing a study on savings in peak power and cooling energy for homes with shade trees.

Brochure describing what permeable pavement is, where to install it, and how to maintain it.

Report documenting actual energy savings of a retrofit project in Boulder, CO.

Pamphlet describing proper mulching around trees and problems and benefits associated with mulching.

Report providing wildfire protection guidance for homeowners in California.

Guidance document describing urban heat islands, what they are, how they form, why we care, and including some strategies to reduce them.

Report providing architects, designers, and homeowners with information to make house plans useful for constructing a more wind resilient structure.

Website tool that can search for trees by name or characteristics and retrieve data describing tree attributes including site preferences and general characteristics and considerations.

A research paper exploring the design, installation, repair and maintenance of solar water and pool heating technologies.

Document describing correct construction of swales, designed to trap particulate pollutants (suspended solids and trace metals), promote infiltration, and reduce the flow velocity of storm water runoff.

Paper describing landscaping influences on heat gain through shading, infiltration shielding, and microclimate creation for nearby buildings.

Paper describing case studies on urban vegetation and greenways and their impacts on city climate and building performance.

Document describing the impacts of tree cover on property values.

Paper describing the effects of shade trees and their location on residential summertime electricity usage.

Article describing thermal bridging, construction practices that encourage thermal bridging, and solving thermal bridging through continuous exterior insulation.

Report sumarizing a workshop to initiate a professional discussion about eventual benefits of the application of massive technologies in US buildings.

Technical report describing the impact of thermal bridging in balcony connections, presenting alternative design strategies, performance analyses, and case studies to enhance energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in building envelopes.

Training course describing how to incorporate trees into an energy-conserving landscape.

Manual describing scientific, technical, and practical information needed to work with communities on urban forestry, including a section on trees and construction.

Document outlining a well-detailed drainage plane and flashings.

Webpage describing the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and how to plan residential building to mitigate wildfire risks associated with building in the WUI.

Webpage from USFA compiling resources from across the U.S. on Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) information.

A report for homeowners and contractors providing specific recommendations for how to retrofit existing components of a home to withstand wildfire.

Website describing how wildfires spread and how fuels, weather, and topography influence fires.

Article describing ways to design and construct a building to resist wildfires.

A list of exterior building products and materials approved for use in wildland urban interface zoned homes. These products are non-combustible or ignition-resistant.

An example of wildland urban interface construction requirements for new buildings built in very high fire risk zones/areas.

Article describing the growth of the wildland urban interface in the United States from 1990 to 2010, expanding from 30.8 to 43.4 million homes (a 41% increase), and growing from 581,000 to 770,000 kM2 (33% growth), an increase of 189,000 km2, an area that is larger than Washington State.

Paper describing wind influences on air infiltration related energy losses for residential housing and the shielding effects of fences, adjacent structures, and vegetation.