Increasing wildfires and changing sociodemographics in communities across California, USA

Abstract

Research has documented how recent wildfires are characteristic of a new fire regime marked by larger, more severe, and damaging wildfires. However, there is less information on how these fire regimes are affecting communities with different sociodemographic characteristics across socio-ecologically diverse regions. Therefore, we spatiotemporally and statistically analyzed the sociodemographic characteristics of communities affected by wildfire in California, USA during 2010–2020. Second, we analyzed if specific sociodemographic groups and disadvantaged communities (DACs) were increasingly affected across socio-ecoregions (SE) during this analysis period. We used available US Census, California Environment Protection Agency, and wildfire perimeter data according to SEs and geospatial and trend analyses. Statewide findings show that higher income, Whites, and renters were indeed significantly and increasingly affected during the analysis period. However, Hispanics and Asian Americans were also increasingly affected statewide, particularly during 2016–2020, and noticeably in certain SEs. For example, Asian Americans were increasingly being affected in the Coastal Sage SE, while Hispanics were more affected in the Central Valley, Sierra Nevada, and Klamath SEs. Finally, we found that urban areas were statistically and increasingly being more affected statewide by wildfires. However, pollution-burdened DACs, as defined by the State of California, were increasingly, but not significantly, being affected by wildfires. The approach and findings can also be used to better define “communities”, formulate environmental justice policies, and understand socio-ecological trajectories.