15. Technology Entrepreneurship and Wildfire Risk Management

This chapter examines the development, applications, and future scope of technology entrepreneurship in wildfire risk management. The first section outlines key wildfire risk trends worldwide by highlighting how infrastructure losses and ecosystem damages from wildfires continue to increase significantly each year with lasting impacts on community wellbeing and sustainable development outcomes. The section underlines the imperative for greater technology applications in wildfire risk management, hereafter referred to as ‘FireTech’. The second section assesses key areas of progress and challenges in wildfire risk management and shows how FireTech is contributing to effective wildfire risk management across four key priorities for action aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030). The final section shows how technology entrepreneurship in FireTech is being enabled by a range of factors, including greater policy and legislative commitment and the increasing availability of state, philanthropic, and private investment funds. The chapter concludes by outlining how FireTech can develop in ways that are just, inclusive, and responsive to disaster risk reduction and sustainable development goals.