Research Database
Displaying 21 - 40 of 163
Roof renewal disparities widen the equity gap in residential wildfire protection
Year: 2025
Wildfires are having disproportionate impacts on U.S. households. Notably, in California, over half of wildfire-destroyed homes (54%) are in low-income areas. We investigate the relationship between social vulnerability and wildfire community preparedness using building permits from 16 counties in California with 2.9 million buildings (2013–2021) and the U.S. government’s designation of disadvantaged communities (DACs), which classifies a census tract as a DAC if it meets a threshold for certain burdens, such as climate, environmental, and socio-economic. Homes located in DACs are 29% more…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Fire branding: Why do new residents make a burn scar their home?
Year: 2024
Researchers have sought to understand why wildland urban interface areas continue to expand in the United States despite increasing riskand loss to those areas. Using the case of the Camp Fire in northern California, which destroyed the town of Paradise and surrounding communities in the fall of 2018, this article explores how new arrivals to this area interact with rebuild institutions to evaluate their risk of future wildfires. The paper builds off of concepts of “disaster machine” (Pais and Elliott in Soc Forces 86(4):1415–1453, 2008) and “resilience gentrification” (Gould and Lewis, 2021…
Publication Type: Journal Article
A Preliminary Case Study on the Compounding Effects of Local Emissions and Upstream Wildfires on Urban Air Pollution
Year: 2024
Interactions between urban and wildfire pollution emissions are active areas of research, with numerous aircraft field campaigns and satellite analyses of wildfire pollution being conducted in recent years. Several studies have found that elevated ozone and particulate pollution levels are both generally associated with wildfire smoke in urban areas. We measured pollutant concentrations at two Utah Division of Air Quality regulatory air quality observation sites and a local hot spot (a COVID-19 testing site) within a 48 h period of increasing wildfire smoke impacts that occurred in Salt Lake…
Publication Type: Journal Article
A laboratory-scale simulation framework for analysing wildfire hydrologic and water quality effects
Year: 2024
Background: Wildfires can significantly impact water quality and supply. However logistical difficulties and high variability in in situ data collection have limited previous analyses.Aims: We simulated wildfire and rainfall effects at varying terrain slopes in a controlled setting to isolate driver-response relationships.Methods: Custom-designed laboratory-scale burn and rainfall simulators were applied to 154 soil samples, measuring subsequent runoff and constituent responses. Simulated conditions included low, moderate, and high burn intensities (~100–600°C); 10…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Garden design can reduce wildfire risk and drive more sustainable co-existence with wildfire
Year: 2024
Destructive wildfire disasters are escalating globally, challenging existing fire management paradigms. The establishment of defensible space around homes in wildland and rural urban interfaces can help to reduce the risk of house loss and provide a safe area for residents and firefighters to defend the property from wildfire. Although defensible space is a well-established concept in fire management, it has received surprisingly limited scientific discussion. Here we reviewed guidelines on the creation of defensible space from Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania. We…
Publication Type: Journal Article
The Distribution of Tree Biomass Carbon within the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest, a Disproportionally Carbon Dense Forest
Year: 2024
Spatially explicit global estimates of forest carbon storage are typically coarsely scaled. While useful, these estimates do not account for the variability and distribution of carbon at management scales. We asked how climate, topography, and disturbance regimes interact across and within geopolitical boundaries to influence tree biomass carbon, using the perhumid region of the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest, an infrequently disturbed carbon dense landscape, as a test case. We leveraged permanent sample plots in southeast Alaska and coastal British Columbia and used multiple quantile…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Carbon, climate, and natural disturbance: a review of mechanisms, challenges, and tools for understanding forest carbon stability in an uncertain future
Year: 2024
In this review, we discuss current research on forest carbon risk from natural disturbance under climate change for the United States, with emphasis on advancements in analytical mapping and modeling tools that have potential to drive research for managing future long-term stability of forest carbon. As a natural mechanism for carbon storage, forests are a critical component of meeting climate mitigation strategies designed to combat anthropogenic emissions. Forests consist of long-lived organisms (trees) that can store carbon for centuries or more. However, trees have finite lifespans, and…
Publication Type: Journal Article
The geography of social vulnerability and wildfire occurrence (1984–2018) in the conterminous USA
Year: 2024
Wildfire is increasing in frequency, extent, and severity in many parts of the USA. Considering the unequal burden of natural hazards on socially vulnerable populations, we ask here, how are characteristics of social vulnerability associated with wildfire occurrence nationwide, at different scales and across differing levels of wildland–urban interface development? To answer this question, we first identify all non-urban census tracts in the USA that have experienced a wildfire since 1984. Using 26 different measures of social vulnerability, we compare these tracts to non-urban census tracts…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Enhanced future vegetation growth with elevated carbon dioxide concentrations could increase fire activity
Year: 2024
Many regions of the planet have experienced an increase in fire activity in recent decades. Although such increases are consistent with warming and drying under continued climate change, the driving mechanisms remain uncertain. Here, we investigate the effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on future fire activity using seven Earth system models. Centered on the time of carbon dioxide doubling, the multi-model mean percent change in fire carbon emissions is 66.4 ± 38.8% (versus 1850 carbon dioxide concentrations, under fixed 1850 land-use conditions). A substantial…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Role of biochar made from low-value woody forest residues in ecological sustainability and carbon neutrality
Year: 2024
Forest management activities that are intended to improve forest health and reduce the risk of catastrophic fire generate low-value woody biomass, which is often piled and open-burned for disposal. This leads to greenhouse gas emissions, long-lasting burn scars, air pollution, and increased risk of escaped prescribed fire. Converting low-value biomass into biochar can be a promising avenue for advancing forest sustainability and carbon neutrality. Biochar can be produced either in a centralized facility or by using place-based techniques that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and generate a…
Publication Type: Journal
Evaluating driving behavior patterns during wildfire evacuations in wildland-urban interface zones using connected vehicles data
Year: 2024
Wildfire risk is increasing all over the world, particularly in the western United States and the communities in wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas are at the greatest risk of fire. Understanding the driving behavior of individuals to evacuate fire-affected WUI areas is important as the evacuees may encounter low visibility and difficult driving conditions due to burning material and steep topography. This study investigates the driving behavior patterns of individuals during historical wildfire events in rural and urban areas with mandatory evacuation orders using a connected vehicle…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Forest Carbon Storage in the Western United States:Distribution, Drivers, and Trends
Year: 2024
Forests are a large carbon sink and could serve as natural climate solutions that help moderatefuture warming. Thus, establishing forest carbon baselines is essential for tracking climate‐mitigation targets.Western US forests are natural climate solution hotspots but are profoundly threatened by drought and altereddisturbance regimes. How these factors shape spatial patterns of carbon storage and carbon change over time ispoorly resolved. Here, we estimate live and dead forest carbon density in 19 forested western US ecoregionswith national inventory data (2005–2019) to determine: (a) current…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Terrestrial carbon dynamics in an era of increasing wildfire
Year: 2023
In an increasingly flammable world, wildfire is altering the terrestrial carbon balance. However, the degree to which novel wildfire regimes disrupt biological function remains unclear. Here, we synthesize the current understanding of above- and belowground processes that govern carbon loss and recovery across diverse ecosystems. We find that intensifying wildfire regimes are increasingly exceeding biological thresholds of resilience, causing ecosystems to convert to a lower carbon-carrying capacity. Growing evidence suggests that plants compensate for fire damage by allocating carbon…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Factors influencing ember accumulation near a building
Year: 2023
Background: Embers, also known as firebrands, are the leading cause of building ignition during wildland–urban fires. This is attributed both to direct ignition of material on, in, or attached to the building, and indirect ignition where they ignite vegetation or other combustible material near the building, which results in a radiant heat and/or direct flame contact exposure that ignites the building. Indirect ignition of a building can occur when embers accumulate on and ignite nearby combustible fuel, resulting in radiant heat or flame constant exposure. Aims/implications: Factors that…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Unprotected lands: A case study of a wildland-urban interface community in “No-Man's land”
Year: 2023
There are areas of the United States that have no formalized fire protection. These lands are colloquially referred to as “no-man’s land” but are recognized by many land management agencies as unprotected lands. Unprotected lands are generally rural landscapes and exist in areas that are sparsely populated and lack formalized fire protection. In some cases, lands that are designated as wildland-urban interface are comprised of significant portions of unprotected lands. Currently, there has been little in the way of research completed that pertains to the overall amount of land that is…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Evaluating driving behavior patterns during wildfire evacuations in wildland-urban interface zones using connected vehicles data
Year: 2023
Wildfire risk is increasing all over the world, particularly in the western United States and the communities in wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas are at the greatest risk of fire. Understanding the driving behavior of individuals to evacuate fire-affected WUI areas is important as the evacuees may encounter low visibility and difficult driving conditions due to burning material and steep topography. This study investigates the driving behavior patterns of individuals during historical wildfire events in rural and urban areas with mandatory evacuation orders using a connected vehicle…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Face-to-face with scorching wildfire: potential toxicant exposure and the health risks of smoke for wildland firefighters at the wildland-urban interface
Year: 2023
As wildfire risks have elevated due to climate change, the health risks that toxicants from fire smoke pose to wildland firefighters have been exacerbated. Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has reclassified wildland firefighters’ occupational exposure as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). Wildfire smoke contributes to an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, yet wildland firefighters have inadequate respiratory protection. The economic cost of wildland fires has risen concurrently, as illustrated by the appropriation of $45 billion for wildfire…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Identifying building locations in the wildland–urban interface before and after fires with convolutional neural networks
Year: 2023
Background: Wildland–urban interface (WUI) maps identify areas with wildfire risk, but they are often outdated owing to the lack of building data. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can extract building locations from remote sensing data, but their accuracy in WUI areas is unknown. Additionally, CNNs are computationally intensive and technically complex, making them challenging for end-users, such as those who use or create WUI maps, to apply.Aims: We identified buildings pre- and post-wildfire and estimated building destruction for three…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Long-term mortality burden trends attributed to black carbon and PM2·5 from wildfire emissions across the continental USA from 2000 to 2020: a deep learning modelling study
Year: 2023
Background
Long-term improvements in air quality and public health in the continental USA were disrupted over the past decade by increased fire emissions that potentially offset the decrease in anthropogenic emissions. This study aims to estimate trends in black carbon and PM2·5 concentrations and their attributable mortality burden across the USA.
Methods
In this study, we derived daily concentrations of PM2·5 and its highly toxic black carbon component at a 1-km resolution in the USA from 2000 to 2020 via deep learning that integrated big data from satellites, models, and surface…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Changes in wildfire occurrence and risk to homes from 1990 through 2019 in the Southern Rocky Mountains, USA
Year: 2023
Wildfires and housing development have increased since the 1990s, presenting unique challenges for wildfire management. However, it is unclear how the relative influences of housing growth and changing wildfire occurrence have altered risk to homes, or the potential for wildfire to threaten homes. We used a random forests model to predict burn probability in relation to weather variables at 1-km resolution and monthly intervals from 1990 through 2019 in the Southern Rocky Mountains ecoregion. We quantified risk by combining the predicted burn probabilities with decadal housing density. We…
Publication Type: Journal Article