Impact Of Wildfires Research Articles

Assessing the Accuracy of MODIS MCD64A1 C6 and FireCCI51 Burned Area Products in Mediterranean Ecosystems

The catastrophic impact of wildfires on the economy and ecosystems of Mediterranean countries in recent years, along with insufficient policies that favor disproportionally high funding for fire suppression, demand a more comprehensive understanding of fire regimes. Satellite remote sensing products support the generation of relevant burned-area (BA) information, since they provide the means for the systematic monitoring of large areas worldwide at low cost. This research study assesses the accuracy of the two publicly available MODIS BA products, MCD64A1 C6 and FireCCI51, at a national scale in a Mediterranean country. The research period covered four fire seasons, and a comparison was conducted against a higher-resolution Sentinel-2 dataset. The specific objectives were to assess their performance in detecting fire events occurring primarily in forest and semi-natural lands and to investigate their spatial and temporal uncertainties. Monthly fire observations were processed and analyzed to derive a comprehensive set of accuracy metrics. We found that fire size has an impact on their detection accuracy, with higher detection occurring in fires larger than 100 ha. Detection of smaller (<100 ha) fires was favored by the 250 m FireCCI51 product, but not from MCD64A1 C6, which exhibited less than 50% detection probability in the same range. Their spatial estimates of burned area exhibited a fairly satisfactory agreement with the reference data, reaching an average of 78% in detection rate. MCD64A1 C6 exhibited a more consistent spatial performance overall and better temporal accuracy, whereas FireCCI51 did not substantially outperform the former despite its finer resolution. Additional research is required for a more rigorous assessment of the variability of these burned area products, yet this research provides further insight and has implications for their use in fire-related applications at the local to the national scale.

Impact of Fires on Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and Priority Bird Species for Conservation in Bolivia

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are sites that contribute significantly to the protection of the planet’s biodiversity. In this study, we evaluated the annual burned areas and the intensity of the fires that affected Bolivia and its 58 KBAs (23.3 million ha) over the last 20 years (2001–2020). In particular, we analyzed the impact of wildfires on the distribution of Bolivian birds at the levels of overall species richness, endemic species and threatened species (Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable). We found that at the KBA level, the cumulative area of wildfires was 21.6 million ha, while the absolute area impacted was 5.6 million ha. The KBAs most affected by the wildfires are located in the departments of Beni and Santa Cruz; mainly in the KBAs Área Natural de Manejo Integrado San Matías, Oeste del río Mamoré, Este del río Mamoré, Noel Kempff Mercado and Área Natural de Manejo Integrado Otuquis. The wildfires impacted the distribution of 54 threatened species and 15 endemic species in the KBAs. Based on the results of this study, it is a priority to communicate to Bolivian government authorities the importance of KBAs as a strategy for the conservation of the country’s biodiversity and the threats resulting from anthropogenic fires.

Modeling the impact of climate change and wildfire on the Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) in the American Southwest: implications for conservation

Youtz, J., R. Goljani Amirkhiz, and J. K. Frey. 2022. Modeling the impact of climate change and wildfire on the Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) in the American Southwest: implications for conservation. Avian Conservation and Ecology 17(1):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-02222-170135

Impacts of Wildfires on Nitrogen Deposition in the Western U.S

Impacts of Wildfires on Nitrogen Deposition in the Western U.S

The Impact of Wildfires on Property Prices an Analysis of the 2015 Sampson Flat Bushfire in South Australia

The Impact of Wildfires on Property Prices an Analysis of the 2015 Sampson Flat Bushfire in South Australia

Вероятностно-детерминированный подход к расчету пожарного риска, вызванного воздействием лучистого теплового потока от фронта верхового устойчивого повального лесного пожара на жилой дом

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to create a mathematical model for calculating the fire risk caused by the impact of a radiant heat flux from the front of an independent crown wild fire on the combustible structures of a residential building. A combined calculation method has been developed that combines deterministic and probabilistic approaches. The combination of the above mentioned approaches is due to the fact that the probabilistic approach does not take into account the specific mechanism of the impact of a wild fire on the structure of a building, while the deterministic approach does not take into consideration the probability of a fire starting ABSTRACT and developing, as well as the timeliness of fire units response for fire extinguishing. Methods. The study uses theoretical methods of heat conduction and radiant heat transfer, wild fire statistics analysis, and fire risk theory. Findings. In the deterministic part of the method to calculate the temperature of the irradiated surface of the building structure, a one-dimensional non-stationary heat conduction equation is used, the boundary condition for which is determined by solving the equation of the radiant heat transfer between the wild fire front and the building. The calculated wood (pine) ignition time is compared with experimental data. The agreement between the calculation and experiment is satisfactory. The formula for calculating the fire risk for a residential building resulted from the impact of the radiant heat flux from the front of a wild fire is proposed. The above-mentioned formula takes into account the frequency of crown wild fires occurrence, the probability of ignition of combustible structures of the building when no firefighting measures are taken, as well as the probability of the active and passive fire prevention measures effectiveness. An example of fire risk calculation is presented when constructing a mineralized line, whose increase in width will reduce the fire risk by 1 000 times. Research application field. The results of the study can be applied in the development of fire prevention measures aimed at protecting communities against wild fires impact. Conclusions. The developed probabilistic-deterministic mathematical model for calculating the impact of a radiant heat flux falling from the front of an independent crown wild fire on the combustible structures of a residential building makes it possible to assess the fire risk for a building, considering specific meteorological conditions, pyrological and geometric (tree height, etc.) characteristics of the woodland, the distance from the building to the edge of the forest, as well as fire prevention measures implementation.

Uncertainty in Health Impact Assessments of Smoke From a Wildfire Event.

Wildfires cause elevated air pollution that can be detrimental to human health. However, health impact assessments associated with emissions from wildfire events are subject to uncertainty arising from different sources. Here, we quantify and compare major uncertainties in mortality and morbidity outcomes of exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution estimated for a series of wildfires in the Southeastern U.S. We present an approach to compare uncertainty in estimated health impacts specifically due to two driving factors, wildfire‐related smoke PM2.5 fields and variability in concentration‐response parameters from epidemiologic studies of ambient and smoke PM2.5. This analysis, focused on the 2016 Southeastern wildfires, suggests that emissions from these fires had public health consequences in North Carolina. Using several methods based on publicly available monitor data and atmospheric models to represent wildfire‐attributable PM2.5, we estimate impacts on several health outcomes and quantify associated uncertainty. Multiple concentration‐response parameters derived from studies of ambient and wildfire‐specific PM2.5 are used to assess health‐related uncertainty. Results show large variability and uncertainty in wildfire impact estimates, with comparable uncertainties due to the smoke pollution fields and health response parameters for some outcomes, but substantially larger health‐related uncertainty for several outcomes. Consideration of these uncertainties can support efforts to improve estimates of wildfire impacts and inform fire‐related decision‐making.

Unsupervised Method for Wildfire Flame Segmentation and Detection

In the last decade, there have been many reports on the negative impact of wildfires on various ecosystems. Unfortunately, wildfires have been intensifying as global temperatures, droughts, and other instances of extreme weather events rise around the world. These circumstances are forcing communities to vigorously address the uncontrolled spread of wildfires, where the ultimate goal is the protection of wildlife. At the same time, many disaster prevention and monitoring methods, based on image processing and computer vision, have been developed. In this paper, we present a new unsupervised method based on RGB color space for the early detection of wildfires from still images. From the analysis of existing state-of-the-art methods, it is evident that different methods explore different color spaces for the extraction of flame features. Our motivation was to use only RGB color space and thus eliminate the time-consuming task of color space conversion. The proposed method consists of several new image processing techniques used to efficiently extract flame features. It outperforms the existing methods, where an increase of 3% and 2% is recorded in the F1 score and Matthews correlation coefficient, respectively. Such performance demonstrates the merits of the proposed method for flame segmentation and detection.

Prescribed Versus Wildfire Impacts on Exotic Plants and Soil Microbes in California Grasslands

Prescribed Versus Wildfire Impacts on Exotic Plants and Soil Microbes in California Grasslands

Burning Susceptibility Modeling to Reduce Wildfire Impacts: A GIS and Multivariate Statistics Approach

Forest burning susceptibility mapping is a tool to mitigate wildfires, with several methods to develop them. This study aimed to compare the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), and Random Forest (RF) methods for mapping. Several variables were used to generate the maps. For MLR and RF methods, fire frequency between 1990 and 2010 was used as the response variable in the models. To validate the methods (AHP, MLR and RF), fire data between 2011 and 2018 were used in four stages. RF was the best method employed. Correct and incorrect values for this method were 74% and 26% and AUC 0.66. The sensitivity and specificity for the highest risk class were 31% and 96%. The low sensitivity values can be attributed to the randomness attributed to anthropic fire. The high specificity values point to a good separation of the higher risk class compared to the others.

Mental Health Impacts of Wildfire, Flooding and COVID-19 on Fort McMurray School Board Staff and Other Employees: A Comparative Study.

Background: Fort McMurray, a city in northern Alberta, Canada, has experienced multiple traumas in the last five years, including the 2016 wildfire, the 2020 floods, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighteen months after the wildfire, major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms were elevated among school board employees in the city. Objective: This study aimed to compare employees of the school board and other employees of Fort McMurray in respect to the impact the 2016 wildfires, the 2019 COVID pandemic, and the 2020 floods had on their mental health. Methodology: A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted in Fort McMurray from 24 April to 2 June 2021. Online questionnaires were administered through REDCap and were designed to capture socio-demographic characteristics, clinical as well as wildfire, COVID-19, and flooding-related variables. Mental health outcome variables were captured using self-reported standardized assessment scales. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics, Chi-square/Fisher’s Exact tests, and binary regression analysis. Results: Of the 249 residents who accessed the online survey, 186 completed the survey, giving a response rate of 74.7%. Of these respondents, 93.5% (174) indicated their employment status and were included in the Chi-square analysis. Most of the respondents were female (86.2%, (150)), above 40 years (53.4%, (93)), and were in a relationship (71.3%, (124)). The prevalence values for MDD, GAD and PTSD among respondents were 42.4%, 41.0, and 36.8%, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between employees of the school board and other employees with respect to likely PTSD prevalence (28% vs. 45%, respectively, p < 0.05), although with other factors controlled for, in a binary logistic regression model, employer type did not significantly predict likely PTSD. Conclusions: The study has established that likely PTSD symptoms were significantly higher in other employees compared to those of school board employees. Greater exposure to the traumatic events and a greater perceived lack of support from other employers might have contributed to the significantly higher prevalence of PTSD in other employees.

Estimating impacts of wildfire and climate variability on streamflow in Victoria, Australia

AbstractWildfires are common in Australia and can cause vegetation loss and affect hydrological processes such as interception, evapotranspiration, soil water storage and streamflow. This study investigates wildfire impacts on catchment mean annual streamflow for 14 Australian catchments that have been severely impacted by the 2009 Victoria wildfire, the second‐worst wildfire disaster in Australia. A statistical approach based on sensitivity coefficients was used for quantifying the climate variability impacts on streamflow and the time trend analysis method was used to estimate the annual streamflow changes due to wildfire respectively. Our results show that wildfire has caused a noticeable increase in mean annual streamflow in the catchments with a burnt area above 70% for an immediate post‐wildfire period (2009–2015) and the wildfire impact on streamflow is evidently larger than the climate change impact in the majority of burnt catchments. Furthermore, the wildfire impact on mean annual streamflow strongly increases with the burnt percentage area, indicated by R2 = 0.73 between the two. The results also illustrate that catchments with high burnt percentage areas can have more potential to gain increased streamflow due to wildfires compared with that due to climate variability and can have significant streamflow change after wildfires above the 70% threshold of burnt area. These results provide evidence for evaluating large‐scale wildfire impact on streamflow at small to medium‐sized catchments, and guidance for process‐based hydrological models for simulating wildfire impacts on hydrological processes for the immediate period after the wildfire.

Observing the climate impact of large wildfires on stratospheric temperature

Wildfires are expected to become more frequent and intense in the future. They not only pose a serious threat to humans and ecosystems, but also affect Earth’s atmosphere. Wildfire plumes can reach into the stratosphere, but little is known about their climate impact. Here, we reveal observational evidence that major wildfires can have a severe impact on the atmospheric temperature structure and short-term climate in the stratosphere. Using advanced satellite observation, we find substantial warming of up to 10 K of the lower stratosphere within the wildfire plumes during their early development. The short-term climate signal in the lower stratosphere lasts several months and amounts to 1 K for the Northern American wildfires in 2017, and up to striking 3.5 K for the Australian wildfires in 2020. This is stronger than any signal from recent volcanic eruptions. Such extreme events affect atmospheric composition and climate trends, underpinning their importance for future climate.

Impact of forest wildfires on components of mountain landscapes of the Baikal region

Forest wildfires cover vast territories of mountainous Siberia. As a result, the appearance of the landscape changes completely, as well as the properties of its components. The paper considers the impact of wildfires on the components of the mountain-taiga geosystems of the Primorskii Range, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Baikal. This is the driest area in the Baikal region, with Goletz and mountain-taiga landscapes, coupled with steppe areas. Wildfires regularly occur during hot and dry periods in all zones of the range, especially since 2015. We made landscape descriptions of the territory of the key site and compiled a map of the landscape structure with conflagration fires overlapped with partially and, optionally, completely burnt-out areas. The vegetation cover has suffered the most, and the characteristics of the hydrological regime and the properties of soils have changed. The vegetation is at the initial stage of recovery, and only a few species can be found in the herbaceous-subshrub cover. The characteristics of the water regime, primarily the temperature on the pyrogenically disturbed catchments, undergo significant changes. The mode of mineralization of streams is unstable, and the amplitudes of water level fluctuations are higher due to the destruction of the natural underlying surface of the catchment. The chemical composition of water in streams after wildfires is generally preserved. Although, an increase in the concentration of nitrates and hydrocarbons is possibly due to fires. Pyrogenic destruction of forest ecosystems inevitably leads to the degradation of mountain soils, which are restored over many decades. After fires in soils, acidity and, consequently, the content of organic matter decreases due to their mineralization.

The Fiscal Impacts of Wildfires on California Municipalities

This paper provides some of the first empirical estimates of the impact of natural disasters on the subcomponents of municipal budgets. We combine detailed municipal financial data from 1990-2015 with data on historical wildfire perimeters in California. We find that wildfires increase both revenues and expenditures. Sales taxes temporarily increase. Property taxes increase to a permanently higher level; this appears due to California law that limits reassessments of property until time of sale. Wildfires also cause a long-term increase in local spending on community development and public safety. The overall impact of wildfires on municipal budgets is negative and substantial. That said, in comparison to the spending by state and federal governments on wildfire suppression and response, municipalities are surprisingly insulated from the costs of wildfires.

Dominance of Wildfires Impact on Air Quality Exceedances During the 2020 Record‐Breaking Wildfire Season in the United States

AbstractThe western United States experienced a record‐breaking wildfire season in 2020. This study quantifies the contribution of wildfire emissions to the exceedances of health‐based National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particles (PM2.5) by comparing two CMAQ simulations, with and without wildfire emissions. During August to October 2020, western wildfires contributed 23% of surface PM2.5 in the contiguous US (CONUS), with a larger contribution in Pacific Coast (43%) and Mountain Region (42%). Consequently, wildfires were the primary contributor to the 3,720 observed exceedances. The wildfire influence peaked on September 14th, 2020, when 273 exceedances were recorded and wildfire emissions contributed 41%, 81%, and 72% to surface PM2.5 concentrations in the CONUS, Pacific Coast, and Mountain Region, respectively. Our finding highlights the predominating influence of wildfires on air quality, and potentially human health, that is expected to grow with increasing fire activities, while anthropogenic emissions decrease.

Logging and wildfire limit the distribution of a vulnerable arboreal mammal

Habitat loss and degradation are two of the greatest threats to biodiversity conservation globally. In Australia, the incidence of wildfire and native forest logging contribute substantially to these processes and have been linked to reduced species diversity and abundance. Arboreal species such as the Yellow-bellied Glider (Petaurus australis), are thought to be susceptible to these disturbances due to their reliance on large patches of forest and hollow-bearing trees. We aimed to assess the impact of logging and wildfire on site occupancy by the Yellow-bellied Glider in Mountain Ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria. We deployed autonomous recording units for 14 nights at 70 sites and searched recordings for Yellow-bellied Glider vocalisations. Yellow-bellied Gliders were detected at 30% (N = 21) of sites. Site occupancy increased with an increasing proportion of the landscape (within 400 m of the recorder) that had not been logged within the last 100 years or burnt by wildfire within the last 10 years. Habitat disturbance caused by logging and fire therefore limit the site occupancy of Yellow-bellied Gliders and likely impact its conservation status. It is therefore critical that appropriate management of timber resources protects large patches of old-growth forest providing food resources and hollows, and the connectivity between large forest patches.

Design considerations for rapid biodiversity reconnaissance surveys and long‐term monitoring to assess the impact of wildfire

AbstractAimsReconnaissance surveys followed by monitoring are needed to assess the impact and response of biodiversity to wildfire. However, post‐wildfire survey and monitoring design are challenging due to the infrequency and unpredictability of wildfire, an urgency to initiate surveys and uncertainty about how species respond. In this article, we discuss key design considerations and quantitative tools available to aid post‐wildfire survey design. Our motivation was to inform the design of rapid surveys for threatened species heavily impacted by the 2019–2020 fires in Australia.LocationGlobal.MethodsWe discuss a set of best practice design considerations for post‐wildfire reconnaissance surveys across a range of survey objectives. We provide examples that illustrate key design considerations from post‐fire reconnaissance surveys and monitoring programmes from around the world.ResultsWe highlight how the objective of post‐fire surveys drastically influences design decisions (e.g. survey location and timing). We discuss how the unpredictability of wildfire and uncertainty in the response of biodiversity complicate survey design decisions.Main conclusionsSurveys should be conducted immediately following wildfire to assess the impact on biodiversity, to ground truth fire severity mapping and to provide a benchmark from which to assess recovery. Where possible, surveys should be conducted at burnt and unburnt sites in regions with historical data so that state variables of interest can be compared with baseline estimates (i.e. BACI design). This highlights the need to have long‐term monitoring programmes already in place and be prepared to modify their design when wildfires occur. There is opportunity to adopt tools from statistics (i.e. power analysis) and conservation planning (i.e. spatial prioritization) to improve survey design. We must anticipate wildfires rather than respond to them reactively as they will occur more frequently due to climate change.

Air Quality Data Approach for Defining Wildfire Influence: Impacts on PM2.5, NO2, CO, and O3 in Western Canadian Cities

As the climate warms, it is recognized that wildfires are increasing in size and frequency. The negative effects of wildfires on air quality are well documented, especially on commonly monitored atmospheric pollutants such as PM2.5, NO2, CO, and O3. However, it is not clear how frequently wildfires influence urban air quality and the size of that influence relative to traffic and industrial pollutants. To understand the impact of wildfires on air quality, we have established an automated method to identify wildfire-influenced ambient air measurements. The trajectory-fire interception method (TFIM) compares hybrid single-particle Lagrangian integrated trajectory (HYSPLIT) back-trajectories from an air quality monitoring station to satellite imagery of fire "hot-spots" to determine the number of trajectory-fire interceptions that occur. From the number of interceptions and local PM2.5 measurements, we have defined a wildfire-influenced period to occur if the interception count is ≥20. TFIM wildfire identification compares favorably with Environment and Climate Change Canada's smoke forecast, FireWork, and with the BlueSky trajectory-based forecast. Using TFIM, we studied the impact of wildfire-influenced periods on PM2.5, NO2, CO, and O3 from 2001 to 2019 in Western Canadian urban areas. We show that wildfire-influenced periods have elevated concentrations of PM2.5, NO2, and CO but not O3. We show that a decreasing urban baseline of CO and NO2 over time results in a relatively greater impact of wildfires on these pollutants, which emphasizes the changing relative importance of wildfires on air quality.

Continental risk assessment for understudied taxa post-catastrophic wildfire indicates severe impacts on the Australian bee fauna.

The 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer wildfires demonstrated that single events can have widespread and catastrophic impacts on biodiversity, causing a sudden and marked reduction in population size for many species. In such circumstances, there is a need for conservation managers to respond rapidly to implement priority remedial management actions for the most-affected species to help prevent extinctions. To date, priority responses have been biased towards high-profile taxa with substantial information bases. Here, we demonstrate that sufficient data are available to model the extinction risk for many less well-known species, which could inform much broader and more effective ecological disaster responses. Using publicly available collection and GIS datasets, combined with life-history data, we modelled the extinction risk from the 2019-2020 catastrophic Australian wildfires for 553 Australian native bee species (33% of all described Australian bee taxa). We suggest that two species are now eligible for listing as Endangered and nine are eligible for listing as Vulnerable under IUCN criteria, on the basis of fire overlap, intensity, frequency, and life-history traits: this tally far exceeds the three Australian bee species listed as threatened prior to the wildfire. We demonstrate how to undertake a wide-scale assessment of wildfire impact on a poorly understood group to help to focus surveys and recovery efforts. We also provide the methods and the script required to make similar assessments for other taxa or in other regions.