Modeling and mapping wildfire ignition risk in Portugal

Mapping Wildfire Ignition Probability Using Sentinel 2 and LiDAR (Jerte Valley, Cáceres, Spain)

Wildfire is a major threat to the environment, and this threat is aggravated by different climatic and socioeconomic factors. The availability of detailed, reliable mapping and periodic and immediate updates makes wildfire prevention and extinction work more effective. An analyst protocol has been generated that allows the precise updating of high-resolution thematic maps. For this protocol, im...

Some Wildfire Ignition Causes Pose More Risk of Destroying Houses than Others

Many houses are at risk of being destroyed by wildfires. While previous studies have improved our understanding of how, when and why houses are destroyed by wildfires, little attention has been given to how these fires started. We compiled a dataset of wildfires that destroyed houses in New South Wales and Victoria and, by comparing against wildfires where no houses were destroyed, investigated...

Risk Externalities, Wildfire Hazard, and Private Investment to Mitigate Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface

Homeowners in areas adjacent to wildlands – in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) – can mitigate the risk that their home will be damaged in a wildfire by creating “defensible space” on their property. This article explores homeowners’ incentives to invest in defensible space using a unique data set on 35 WUI communities in Nevada. This is the first study to analyze homeowners’ incentives to in...

Economic Efficiency of Fuel Reduction Treatments in the Home Ignition Zone to Mitigate Wildfire Risk in Montana, Usa

Modeling Wildfire Incident Complexity Dynamics

Wildfire management in the United States and elsewhere is challenged by substantial uncertainty regarding the location and timing of fire events, the socioeconomic and ecological consequences of these events, and the costs of suppression. Escalating U.S. Forest Service suppression expenditures is of particular concern at a time of fiscal austerity as swelling fire management budgets lead to dec...