As Los Angeles recovers from its devastating wildfires, environmental engineers, urban planners and natural disaster experts are casting forward with visions of what could come next for neighborhoods that have been reduced to ash and rubble.

For more than a century, conservation policy has focused on economic development and wisely using natural resources.

The experiences of those who rebuilt after the 2017 wildfires in northern California offer a template for Los Angeles area reconstruction efforts.

At least 29 people are believed to be dead and more than a dozen others remain unaccounted for as multiple wildfires rage across Southern California.