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.

Extreme conditions helped drive the fast-moving fires that destroyed thousands of homes in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

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.