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MCCONNELL KATHRYN, BRANEON CHRISTIANV. Post-wildfire neighborhood change: evidence from the 2018 Camp Fire. LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING 2024; 247:104997. [PMID: 38828213 PMCID: PMC11139020 DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104997] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
As the number of highly destructive wildfires grows, it is increasingly important to understand the long-term changes that occur to fire-affected places. Integrating approaches from social and biophysical science, we document two forms of neighborhood change following the 2018 Camp Fire in the United States, examining the more than 17,000 residential structures within the burn footprint. We found that mobile or motor homes, lower-value residences, and absentee owner residences had a significantly higher probability of being destroyed, providing evidence that housing stock filtering facilitated socially stratified patterns of physical damage. While the relationship between building value and destruction probability could be explained by measures of building density and distance to nearby roads, building type remained an independent predictor of structure loss that we could not fully explain by adding environmental covariates to our models. Using a geospatial machine learning technique, we then identified buildings that had been reconstructed within the burn footprint 20 months after the fire. We found that reconstructed buildings were more likely to have been owner-occupied prior to the fire and had higher average pre-fire property value, suggesting an emerging pattern of cost-burden gentrification. Our findings illustrate the importance of examining the built environment as a driver of socially uneven disaster impacts. Wildfire mitigation strategies are needed for mobile and motor home residents, renters, low-income residents, and dense neighborhoods.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - CHRISTIAN V. BRANEON
- Columbia Climate School, CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR), Carbon Direct, USA
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VanderRoest JP, Fowler JA, Rhoades CC, Roth HK, Broeckling CD, Fegel TS, McKenna AM, Bechtold EK, Boot CM, Wilkins MJ, Borch T. Fire Impacts on the Soil Metabolome and Organic Matter Biodegradability. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:4167-4180. [PMID: 38385432 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c09797] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Global wildfire activity has increased since the 1970s and is projected to intensify throughout the 21st century. Wildfires change the composition and biodegradability of soil organic matter (SOM) which contains nutrients that fuel microbial metabolism. Though persistent forms of SOM often increase postfire, the response of more biodegradable SOM remains unclear. Here we simulated severe wildfires through a controlled "pyrocosm" approach to identify biodegradable sources of SOM and characterize the soil metabolome immediately postfire. Using microbial amplicon (16S/ITS) sequencing and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, heterotrophic microbes (Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Protobacteria) and specific metabolites (glycine, protocatechuate, citric cycle intermediates) were enriched in burned soils, indicating that burned soils contain a variety of substrates that support microbial metabolism. Molecular formulas assigned by 21 T Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry showed that SOM in burned soil was lower in molecular weight and featured 20 to 43% more nitrogen-containing molecular formulas than unburned soil. We also measured higher water extractable organic carbon concentrations and higher CO2 efflux in burned soils. The observed enrichment of biodegradable SOM and microbial heterotrophs demonstrates the resilience of these soils to severe burning, providing important implications for postfire soil microbial and plant recolonization and ecosystem recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob P VanderRoest
- Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
| | - Julie A Fowler
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
| | - Charles C Rhoades
- Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, United States
| | - Holly K Roth
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
| | - Corey D Broeckling
- Bioanalysis and Omics Center, Analytical Resources Core, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 80521, United States
| | - Timothy S Fegel
- Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, United States
| | - Amy M McKenna
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, 1800 East Paul Dirac Dr., Tallahassee, Florida 32310, United States
| | - Emily K Bechtold
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
| | - Claudia M Boot
- Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
| | - Michael J Wilkins
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
| | - Thomas Borch
- Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, United States
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Nguyen D, Belval EJ, Wei Y, Short KC, Calkin DE. Dataset of United States Incident Management Situation Reports from 2007 to 2021. Sci Data 2024; 11:23. [PMID: 38172173 PMCID: PMC10764906 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-023-02876-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
This paper presents a unique 15-year dataset of Incident Management Situation Reports (IMSR), which document daily wildland fire situations across ten geographical regions in the United States. The IMSR dataset includes summaries for each reported day on national and regional wildfire activities, wildfire-specific activities, and committed fire suppression resources (i.e., personnel and equipment). This dataset is distinct from other wildfire data sources as it provides daily information on national fire suppression resource utilization, national and regional preparedness levels, and management priority for each region and fire. We developed an open-source Java program, IMSR-Tool, to process 3,124 IMSR reports available from 2007 to 2021 to generate this structured IMSR dataset, which can be updated when future reports become available. The dataset presented here and its future extension enable researchers and practitioners to study historical wildfire activity and resource use across regions and time, examine fire management perceptions, evaluate strategies for fire prioritization and fire resource allocation, and exploit other broader usage to improve wildfire management and response in the United States.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dung Nguyen
- Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
| | - Erin J Belval
- USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 West Prospect, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA
| | - Yu Wei
- Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA
| | - Karen C Short
- USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 5775 US Highway 10 West, Missoula, MT, 59808, USA
| | - David E Calkin
- USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 800 East Beckwith, Missoula, MT, 59801, USA
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Radeloff VC, Mockrin MH, Helmers D, Carlson A, Hawbaker TJ, Martinuzzi S, Schug F, Alexandre PM, Kramer HA, Pidgeon AM. Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands. Science 2023; 382:702-707. [PMID: 37943916 DOI: 10.1126/science.ade9223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023]
Abstract
Wildfire risks to homes are increasing, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where wildland vegetation and houses are in close proximity. Notably, we found that more houses are exposed to and destroyed by grassland and shrubland fires than by forest fires in the United States. Destruction was more likely in forest fires, but they burned less WUI. The number of houses within wildfire perimeters has doubled since the 1990s because of both housing growth (47% of additionally exposed houses) and more burned area (53%). Most exposed houses were in the WUI, which grew substantially during the 2010s (2.6 million new WUI houses), albeit not as rapidly as before. Any WUI growth increases wildfire risk to houses though, and more fires increase the risk to existing WUI houses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Volker C Radeloff
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Miranda H Mockrin
- Northern Research Station, US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Catonsville, MD 21228, USA
| | - David Helmers
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Amanda Carlson
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Todd J Hawbaker
- US Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Lakewood, CO 80225, USA
| | - Sebastian Martinuzzi
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Franz Schug
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Patricia M Alexandre
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - H Anu Kramer
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Anna M Pidgeon
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
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Modaresi Rad A, Abatzoglou JT, Fleishman E, Mockrin MH, Radeloff VC, Pourmohamad Y, Cattau M, Johnson JM, Higuera P, Nauslar NJ, Sadegh M. Social vulnerability of the people exposed to wildfires in U.S. West Coast states. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadh4615. [PMID: 37729397 PMCID: PMC10511185 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh4615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/22/2023]
Abstract
Understanding of the vulnerability of populations exposed to wildfires is limited. We used an index from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the social vulnerability of populations exposed to wildfire from 2000-2021 in California, Oregon, and Washington, which accounted for 90% of exposures in the western United States. The number of people exposed to fire from 2000-2010 to 2011-2021 increased substantially, with the largest increase, nearly 250%, for people with high social vulnerability. In Oregon and Washington, a higher percentage of exposed people were highly vulnerable (>40%) than in California (~8%). Increased social vulnerability of populations in burned areas was the primary contributor to increased exposure of the highly vulnerable in California, whereas encroachment of wildfires on vulnerable populations was the primary contributor in Oregon and Washington. Our results emphasize the importance of integrating the vulnerability of at-risk populations in wildfire mitigation and adaptation plans.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - John T. Abatzoglou
- Management of Complex Systems Department, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Erica Fleishman
- College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | | | - Volker C. Radeloff
- SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Yavar Pourmohamad
- Department of Civil Engineering, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA
| | - Megan Cattau
- Human-Environment Systems, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA
| | | | - Philip Higuera
- Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
| | | | - Mojtaba Sadegh
- Department of Civil Engineering, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA
- United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, ON, Canada
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