A spatial evaluation of global wildfire-water risks to human and natural systems
Abstract
The large mediatic coverage of recent massive wildfires across the world has emphasized the vulnerability of freshwater resources. The extensive hydrogeomorphic effects from a wildfire can impair the ability of watersheds to provide safe drinking water to downstream communities and high-quality water to maintain riverine ecosystem health. Safeguarding water use for human activities and ecosystems is required for sustainable development; however, no global assessment of wildfire impacts on water supply is currently available. Here, we provide the first global evaluation of wildfire risks to water security, in the form of a spatially explicit index. We adapted the Driving forces-Pressure-State-Impact-Response risk analysis framework to select a comprehensive set of indicators of fire activity and water availability, which we then aggregated to a single index of wildfire-water risk using a simple additive weighted model. Our results show that water security in many regions of the world is potentially vulnerable, regardless of socio-economic status. However, in developing countries, a critical component of the risk is the lack of socio-economic capability to respond to disasters. Our work highlights the importance of addressing wildfire-induced risks in the development of water security policies; the geographic differences in the components of the overall risk could help adapting those policies to different regional contexts.
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As the climate becomes increasingly hotter and drier and human activities continue to expand, threats to water security will become more prevalent.
“As the climate becomes increasingly hotter and drier and human activities continue to expand, threats to water security will become more prevalent (AghaKouchak et al., 2018; Hallema et al., 2018; Robinne et al., 2018).”
From Scientists' warning on extreme wildfire risks to water supply (2021) · cites this paper as Robinne et al., 2018
Our results corroborate recent evidence of significant increases in river flow following wildland fires in arid watersheds such as New Mexico and Colorado.
“Our results corroborate with recent evidence of significant increases in river flow following wildland fires in arid watersheds, such as New Mexico and Colorado9,16,22.”
From Burned forests impact water supplies (2018) · cites this paper as [16]
Cites
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Jolly, W. M., Cochrane, M. A., Freeborn, P. H., Holden, Z. A., Brown, T. J., Williamson, G. J., & Bowman, D. M. J. S. (2015) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms8537 · Cited by 2,200 · see citing works
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Wildfire and the Future of Water Supply
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Fire effects on aquatic ecosystems: an assessment of the current state of the science
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A Global Index for Mapping the Exposure of Water Resources to Wildfire
Robinne, F.-N., Miller, C., Parisien, M.-A., Emelko, M., Bladon, K., Silins, U., & Flannigan, M. (2016) · Forests · doi:10.3390/f7010022 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
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Burned forests impact water supplies
Hallema, D. W., Sun, G., Caldwell, P. V., Norman, S. P., Cohen, E. C., Liu, Y., Bladon, K. D., & McNulty, S. G. (2018) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03735-6 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
Self-citationScientists' warning on extreme wildfire risks to water supply
Robinne, F., Hallema, D. W., Bladon, K. D., Flannigan, M. D., Boisramé, G., Bréthaut, C. M., Doerr, S. H., Di Baldassarre, G., Gallagher, L. A., Hohner, A. K., et al. (2021) · Hydrological Processes · doi:10.1002/hyp.14086 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
“As the climate becomes increasingly hotter and drier and human activities continue to expand, threats to water security will become more prevalent (AghaKouchak et al., 2018; Hallema et al., 2018; Robinne et al., 2018).”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citation
- Authors
- Robinne, F.-N., Bladon, K. D., Miller, C., Parisien, M.-A., Mathieu, J., & Flannigan, M. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Alberta (CA)
- Oregon State University (US)
- Canadian Forest Service (CA)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Robinne, François-Nicolas
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science of The Total Environment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-01
- Volume
- 610-611
- Pages
- 1193-1206
- ISSN
- 0048-9697 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2752972743
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 6.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Science of The Total Environment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Tokyo
- Tartu Ãlikool
- University of Tasmania
- University of Alberta
- University of Maryland
- Zoological Society of London
- Fetzer Institute
- Canadian Water Network
- Montana State University
- Western University
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Ocean Engineering › Water resources management and optimization
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Environmental Science and Water Management
- Keywords
- forest fires, water security, drinking water supply, watershed impacts, DPSIR framework, socioeconomic vulnerability, disaster response capacity, developing countries
- MeSH terms
- Wildfires, Conservation of Natural Resources, Fresh Water, Humans, Human Activities, Risk, Water Supply, Ecosystem
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