Report on the Contribution of Ventura County’s SOAR Initiative to Sustainable Development Goals

Executive Summary

Ventura County’s Save Open-Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) initiative, a voter-approved land-use policy, demonstrates a significant contribution to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Initially established to protect open spaces and agricultural lands from urban sprawl, recent research has revealed its critical role in enhancing community resilience to wildfire. This directly aligns with key targets under SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land), providing a comprehensive model for sustainable development.

Advancing SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

The SOAR initiative provides a successful framework for sustainable urban planning and disaster risk reduction, directly addressing several targets within SDG 11.

1. Sustainable Urbanization (Target 11.3): By establishing voter-approved City Urban Restriction Boundaries (CURBs), SOAR prevents urban sprawl and promotes more compact, sustainable city development. This policy has resulted in ancillary benefits such as reduced traffic congestion and improved air quality.
2. Disaster Risk Reduction (Target 11.5): The policy significantly enhances community safety from wildfires by discouraging housing development in high-risk wildland-urban interface (WUI) zones. This reduces potential property loss and limits human-caused ignitions.
3. Access to Green and Public Spaces (Target 11.7): SOAR ensures the preservation of extensive greenbelts, natural open spaces, and farmlands that encircle urban centers, safeguarding access to green spaces for communities.
4. Strengthening Urban-Rural Linkages (Target 11.a): The initiative effectively manages the critical boundary between urban development and adjacent agricultural and wildland areas, supporting positive environmental and economic links between them.

Contributions to SDG 13: Climate Action and SDG 15: Life on Land

SOAR’s land management strategy directly addresses climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation, aligning with the goals of SDG 13 and SDG 15.

• Climate Resilience (Target 13.1): The initiative strengthens community resilience to climate-related hazards, specifically the increasing threat of wildfires. Research confirms that protected agricultural land functions as a natural and effective buffer against fire spread.
• Conservation of Terrestrial Ecosystems (Targets 15.1 & 15.5): By restricting development, SOAR protects thousands of acres of conserved wildlands. This prevents the degradation of natural habitats and contributes to the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and the halting of biodiversity loss.
• Sustainable Land Management (Target 15.3): The preservation of irrigated farmland, characterized by moist soils, contributes to improved land and soil quality, creating a landscape that is inherently less susceptible to the spread of fire.

Supporting SDG 2: Zero Hunger and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

The protection of agricultural resources under SOAR yields direct positive impacts on regional food security and economic stability.

• Sustainable Food Production (Target 2.4): The initiative safeguards nearly 100,000 acres of vital farmland, ensuring the continuation of sustainable and resilient agricultural practices that contribute to regional food systems.
• Economic Growth (SDG 8): This protected farmland is the foundation of a $2.3 billion local agriculture industry, demonstrating how environmental protection policies can support sustained and decent economic activity.

Key Research Findings on Wildfire Resilience

A study by Julia Field of UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, “Mapping Fire Pathways in Ventura County’s SOAR Properties Using Species Distribution Modeling,” provides empirical evidence for SOAR’s effectiveness in wildfire mitigation.

1. Fire Buffer Zone: The research modeled fire pathways and demonstrated that SOAR-protected farmland in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) acts as a buffer that can “corral fires,” keeping them within wildlands and away from urban areas.
2. Fire Path Resistance: Fire simulations confirmed that pathways consistently avoid the moist soils and row crops characteristic of irrigated farmland, as these features present higher resistance to fire spread compared to undeveloped natural vegetation.
3. Alignment with Expert Recommendations: These findings support the recommendations of the Los Angeles and Ventura County Woolsey Fire After Action Review, which emphasized the use of layered buffer zones, vegetation mitigation, and improved soil moisture to protect communities.

Conclusion: A Replicable Model for Global Sustainability

The SOAR initiative in Ventura County serves as a powerful case study in integrated land-use planning that achieves multiple sustainability objectives simultaneously. Its success in preventing urban sprawl, supporting a robust agricultural economy, and enhancing community resilience to climate-driven disasters offers a valuable and replicable strategy for communities worldwide seeking to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

SDGs Addressed in the Article

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

• The article highlights the protection of agricultural resources. The SOAR initiative has “saved vital farmland that supports a $2.3 billion agriculture industry” and protects “close to 100,000 acres of farmland.” This directly relates to ensuring sustainable food production and supporting the agricultural economy.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

• The core theme of the article is sustainable urban planning. The SOAR initiative is a land-use policy designed to “prevented urban sprawl” by establishing “City Urban Restriction Boundaries (CURBs).” It also addresses community resilience to disasters, as research found that protected farmland makes “cities more resilient to wildfire.” The article also mentions benefits like “our roads less congested, our air cleaner, our natural open space more abundant.”

SDG 13: Climate Action

• The article explicitly connects the issue of wildfire to climate change, noting communities must protect themselves “from the increasing threat of wildfire as climate change takes its toll.” The SOAR initiative is presented as a strategy to strengthen resilience and adapt to climate-related hazards by using farmland as a natural buffer against wildfires.

SDG 15: Life on Land

• The article is fundamentally about land conservation. The SOAR initiative’s purpose is to “protect its open spaces and farmlands.” It has resulted in “thousands of acres of conserved wildlands” and discourages “development of housing tracts… in forests and woodlands,” thereby protecting terrestrial ecosystems from the impacts of urban expansion.

Specific SDG Targets Identified

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

1. Target 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems… The article supports this by describing how SOAR protects “close to 100,000 acres of farmland,” ensuring the land remains productive for a “$2.3 billion agriculture industry” while also serving an ecological function as a fire buffer.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

1. Target 11.3: By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management. The article details how Ventura County voters approved “a series of SOAR initiatives,” a “successful grassroots effort” that constitutes a participatory and sustainable approach to urban planning by preventing sprawl.
2. Target 11.5: By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and… decrease the direct economic losses… caused by disasters. The article’s main finding is that SOAR-protected land makes communities “safer from wildfire” and that “less development in these at-risk open spaces results in fewer homes burned,” directly addressing disaster risk reduction.
3. Target 11.a: Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning. SOAR achieves this by establishing “City Urban Restriction Boundaries (CURBs) around cities to keep them from expanding out into adjacent greenbelts,” thus managing the interface between urban and rural (farmland/open space) areas.

SDG 13: Climate Action

1. Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. The article presents the SOAR land-use policy as a direct response to “the increasing threat of wildfire as climate change takes its toll.” The research shows that protected farmland acts as a buffer, which is a clear example of strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to a climate-related hazard.

SDG 15: Life on Land

1. Target 15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests… The article states that SOAR was approved to “protect its open spaces and farmlands” and has resulted in “thousands of acres of conserved wildlands,” directly contributing to the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems.
2. Target 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity… The article explains that SOAR prevents urban sprawl into “natural open space,” “wildlands,” and “forests and woodlands,” which is a direct action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats that would otherwise occur with development.

Indicators for Measuring Progress

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

• Implied Indicator: Area of agricultural land protected. The article explicitly states that SOAR protects “close to 100,000 acres of farmland.”
• Implied Indicator: Economic value of agricultural production. The article mentions that the protected farmland “supports a $2.3 billion agriculture industry.”

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

• Implied Indicator: Existence of participatory urban planning policies. The article describes SOAR as a series of “voter-approved” initiatives and a “successful grassroots effort,” which serves as a qualitative indicator of participatory planning.
• Implied Indicator: Reduction in property damage from disasters. The article implies this by stating that the policy leads to “fewer homes burned” and that farmland can “corral fires.”

SDG 13: Climate Action

• Implied Indicator: Adoption of local disaster risk reduction strategies aligned with national strategies. The article describes SOAR as a “land use strategy” that makes communities safer from wildfire, which functions as a local disaster risk reduction strategy for a climate-related hazard.

SDG 15: Life on Land

• Implied Indicator: Proportion of land area protected. The article mentions “thousands of acres of conserved wildlands” and the protection of “open spaces and farmlands” as a direct result of the SOAR policy.
• Implied Indicator: Land use policies that prevent development in key ecosystems. The article describes how SOAR requires “voter approval before farmland or open space can be rezoned for urban development” and discourages development in “forests and woodlands.”

Summary of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: vcstar.com