Rapid growth of the US wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk
Open accessAbstract
Significance: When houses are built close to forests or other types of natural vegetation, they pose two problems related to wildfires. First, there will be more wildfires due to human ignitions. Second, wildfires that occur will pose a greater risk to lives and homes, they will be hard to fight, and letting natural fires burn becomes impossible. We examined the number of houses that have been built since 1990 in the United States in or near natural vegetation, in an area known as the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and found that a large number of houses have been built there. Approximately one in three houses and one in ten hectares are now in the WUI. These WUI growth trends will exacerbate wildfire problems in the future.
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There remain challenges associated with capturing impacts of land use, the expansion of the wildland-urban interface, and the natural variability associated with lightning ignitions and ignition efficiency.
“However, there remain challenges associated with capturing impacts of land use (Andela et al., 2017;Schoennagel et al., 2017), the expansion of the wildland-urban interface (Radeloff et al., 2018) and the natural variability associated with lightning ignitions and ignition efficiency (the proportion of lightning strikes that generate ignitions; Romps, Seeley, Vollaro, & Molinari, 2014).”
From Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers (2020) · cites this paper as Radeloff et al., 2018
Cites
The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth
Bowman, D. M. J. S., Balch, J., Artaxo, P., Bond, W. J., Cochrane, M. A., D’Antonio, C. M., DeFries, R., Johnston, F. H., Keeley, J. E., Krawchuk, M. A., et al. (2011) · Journal of Biogeography · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x · Cited by 1,230 · cited 1× · see citing works
“While fires are an integral part of many ecosystems and the Earth system as a whole (6), humans have changed fire regimes globally (7) and throughout the United States (5), and climate change will increase fire frequency in the future, including in the WUI (8).”
BackgroundHuman influence on California fire regimes
Syphard, A. D., Radeloff, V. C., Keeley, J. E., Hawbaker, T. J., Clayton, M. K., Stewart, S. I., & Hammer, R. B. (2007) · Ecological Applications · doi:10.1890/06-1128.1 · Cited by 661 · see citing works
Self-citationExpansion of the US wildland–urban interface
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Schoennagel, T., Nelson, C. R., Theobald, D. M., Carnwath, G. C., & Chapman, T. B. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0900991106 · Cited by 151 · see citing works
The 2010 wildland-urban interface of the conterminous United States
Martinuzzi, S., Stewart, S. I., Helmers, D. P., Mockrin, M. H., Hammer, R. B., & Radeloff, V. C. (2015) · doi:10.2737/nrs-rmap-8 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
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Climate Extremes and Compound Hazards in a Warming World
AghaKouchak, A., Chiang, F., Huning, L. S., Love, C. A., Mallakpour, I., Mazdiyasni, O., Moftakhari, H., Papalexiou, S. M., Ragno, E., & Sadegh, M. (2020) · Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences · doi:10.1146/annurev-earth-071719-055228 · Cited by 1,103 · see citing works
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“…associated with capturing impacts of land use (Andela et al., 2017; Schoennagel et al., 2017), the expansion of the wildland-urban interface (Radeloff et al., 2018) and the natural variability associated with lightning ignitions and ignition efficiency (the proportion of lightning strikes…”
Wildfires Alter Forest Watersheds and Threaten Drinking Water Quality
Hohner, A. K., Rhoades, C. C., Wilkerson, P., & Rosario-Ortiz, F. L. (2019) · Accounts of Chemical Research · doi:10.1021/acs.accounts.8b00670 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Factors Associated with Structure Loss in the 2013–2018 California Wildfires
Syphard, A., & Keeley, J. (2019) · Fire · doi:10.3390/fire2030049 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Self-citationSwitching on the Big Burn of 2017
Balch, J. K., Schoennagel, T., Williams, A. P., Abatzoglou, J. T., Cattau, M. E., Mietkiewicz, N. P., & St. Denis, L. A. (2018) · Fire · doi:10.3390/fire1010017 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Knapp, E. E., Valachovic, Y. S., Quarles, S. L., & Johnson, N. G. (2021) · Fire Ecology · doi:10.1186/s42408-021-00117-0 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Up in smoke: California's greenhouse gas reductions could be wiped out by 2020 wildfires
Jerrett, M., Jina, A. S., & Marlier, M. E. (2022) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119888 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Radeloff, V. C., Helmers, D. P., Kramer, H. A., Mockrin, M. H., Alexandre, P. M., Bar-Massada, A., Butsic, V., Hawbaker, T. J., Martinuzzi, S., Syphard, A. D., & Stewart, S. I.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- US Forest Service (US)
- Department of Biology and Environment, University of Haifa–Oranim, 36006 Kiryat Tivon, Israel;
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- Conservation Biology Institute (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2018-03-12
- Volume
- 115
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 3314-3319
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5879688
- OpenAlex
- W2790912842
- Cited by
- 1,225
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 198 · 2025: 167 · 2024: 178 · 2023: 198 · 2022: 177 · 2021: 128 · 2020: 98 · 2019: 62 · 2018: 16 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 44.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station (08-JV-11242309-080, 13-JV-11242309-050)
- Joint Fire Sciences Program (14-JV-11221636-111)
- Fulbright Exchange Program (NA)
- Portugal's Foundation for Science and Technology (NA)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Disaster Management and Resilience
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Keywords
- wildland-urban interface, wildfire risk, housing growth, human ignition, natural vegetation, wildfire spread, fire suppression, housing development, United States
- MeSH terms
- Wildfires, Conservation of Natural Resources, Housing, Humans, Risk Factors, United States, Urbanization, Ecosystem
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