Regional-scale Analysis Research Articles

Regional water coefficients for U.S. industrial sectors

Designing policies for water systems management requires the capability to assess the economic impacts of water availability and to effectively couple water withdrawals by human activities with natural hydrologic dynamics. At the core of any scientific approach to these issues there is the estimation of water withdrawals by industrial sectors in the form of water coefficients, which are measurements of the quantity of water withdrawn per dollar of GDP or output. In this work we focus on the contiguous United States and on the estimation of water coefficients for regional scale analyses. We first compare an established methodology for the estimation of national water coefficients with a parametric one we propose. Second, we introduce a method to estimate water coefficients at the level of ecological regions and we discuss how they reduce possible biases in regional analyses of water systems. We conclude discussing advantages and limits of regional water coefficients.

Groundwater Development Stress: Global‐Scale Indices Compared to Regional Modeling

The increased availability of global datasets and technologies such as global hydrologic models and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites have resulted in a growing number of global-scale assessments of water availability using simple indices of water stress. Developed initially for surface water, such indices are increasingly used to evaluate global groundwater resources. We compare indices of groundwater development stress for three major agricultural areas of the United States to information available from regional water budgets developed from detailed groundwater modeling. These comparisons illustrate the potential value of regional-scale analyses to supplement global hydrological models and GRACE analyses of groundwater depletion. Regional-scale analyses allow assessments of water stress that better account for scale effects, the dynamics of groundwater flow systems, the complexities of irrigated agricultural systems, and the laws, regulations, engineering, and socioeconomic factors that govern groundwater use. Strategic use of regional-scale models with global-scale analyses would greatly enhance knowledge of the global groundwater depletion problem.

Regional-scale analysis of karst underground flow deduced from tracing experiments: examples from carbonate aquifers in Malaga province, southern Spain

Tracer concentration data from field experiments conducted in several carbonate aquifers (Malaga province, southern Spain) were analyzed following a dual approach based on the graphical evaluation method (GEM) and solute transport modeling to decipher flow mechanisms in karst systems at regional scale. The results show that conduit system geometry and flow conditions are the principal factors influencing tracer migration through the examined karst flow routes. Solute transport is mainly controlled by longitudinal advection and dispersion throughout the conduit length, but also by flow partitioning between mobile and immobile fluid phases, while the matrix diffusion process appears to be less relevant. The simulation of tracer breakthrough curves (BTCs) suggests that diffuse and concentrated flow through the unsaturated zone can have equivalent transport properties under extreme recharge, with high flow velocities and efficient mixing due to the high hydraulic gradients generated. Tracer mobilization within the saturated zone under low flow conditions mainly depends on the hydrodynamics (rather than on the karst conduit development), which promote a lower longitudinal advection and retardation in the tracer migration, resulting in a marked tailing effect of BTCs. The analytical advection-dispersion equation better approximates the effective flow velocity and longitudinal dispersion estimations provided by the GEM, while the non-equilibrium transport model achieves a better adjustment of most asymmetric and long-tailed BTCs. The assessment of karst underground flow properties from tracing tests at regional scale can aid design of groundwater management and protection strategies, particularly in large hydrogeological systems (i.e. transboundary carbonate aquifers) and/or in poorly investigated ones.

Regional- to Reservoir-scale Evaluation of CO2 Storage Resource Estimates of Coal Seams

Unmineable coal seams are an important target for investigating the economic viability of carbon capture and storage technology owing to their potential for simultaneous CO2 storage and enhanced coalbed methane production. As such, recent developments in integrated system models are aiming to explicitly incorporate coal seam storage and enhanced methane production into their economic analyses, however, such implementation currently relies on fairly uncertain prospective resource estimates derived from regional-scale analyses. In this paper, we evaluate the uncertainty of such prospective resource estimates, both for CO2 storage and for CO2 utilization potential (i.e., enhanced coalbed methane production from CO2 injection) via comparison to results from more detailed, local-scale reservoir simulations at numerous locations. Reservoir-scale simulations incorporate the dynamic system response to CO2 injection, whereas regional-scale prospective resource estimates rely on volumetric calculations of original gas-in-place from static geological models combined with assumed recovery factors.Results based on a case study of 12 different locations in the Illinois Basin, USA suggest that prospective resource estimates for CO2 storage may be systematically biased towards over-estimation. By developing a set of low-, mid-, and high-range estimates from model simulations, a total of 36 comparisons were made to the prospective resource estimates, of which 35 showed significantly lower results for the model-based estimates. Model sensitivity testing of variable CO2 injection rates indicated that the requirement to maintain reservoir pressure below the fracture gradient threshold is in part responsible for the lower limit of storage resource estimates obtained from the reservoir simulation results versus the prospective resource methodology which neglects such processes. In terms of enhanced methane recovery, results were far more comparable between the two methods for the low- and mid-range set of estimates, whereas the high-range estimates were still notably larger using the prospective resource methodology. We conclude that utilizing prospective resource estimates of enhanced coalbed methane potential in integrated system models appears feasible for the more conservative range of estimates, whereas CO2 storage estimates of coal seams are likely to produce overly optimistic results in the system model. We also note that for the Illinois Basin case study, both the modelling results and the regional-scale results indicate that a significant amount of additional well drilling beyond the existing coalbed methane infrastructure would need to be conducted in order for coal seams to be a viable alternative to other options in the region such as oil and gas reservoirs and deep saline formations.

Marine life in a greenhouse world: cephalopod biodiversity and biogeography during the early Late Cretaceous

AbstractTwo end-member models are proposed to explain marine biotic responses to greenhouse conditions. Global warming and increasing sea level may: (1) promote dispersal of marine species, leading to larger geographic ranges and decreased speciation and biodiversity; or (2) result in formation of isolated epicontinental basins that host endemic radiations, leading to smaller geographic ranges and increased speciation and biodiversity. The Cenomanian–Turonian (C–T) interval, marked by greenhouse warming, sea-level rise, ocean anoxia, and biotic turnover, presents an opportunity to test these two end-member models. In particular, how cephalopods responded to these global changes has not been clear. A global database of 7262 cephalopod occurrences was used to evaluate biodiversity changes through the C–T interval. Both species- and genus-level diversity peaked in the late Cenomanian. The global diversity drop across the C/T boundary was modest; rather, diversity was low during the middle Cenomanian and middle Turonian, times of brief cooling. Regional variations in diversity responses may reflect the degree and timing of environmental perturbations within different oceanographic settings. Surprisingly, cephalopod faunas in the European Platform, Western Interior, and South Atlantic all shifted equatorward across the C/T boundary, whereas other regions saw no change in latitudinal distributions. Global generic geographic ranges did not change through the C–T interval, but the percentage of cosmopolitan genera did increase significantly across the C/T, both globally and within the Western Interior and Europe, whereas cosmopolitans dropped in the Pacific and South Atlantic. Neither end-member model for biodiversity change in a greenhouse world is supported for C–T cephalopods, as diversity increased without an associated increase in geographic range. It may be that sea-level rise and global warming led to both endemic radiations in epicontinental basins and an increase in cosmopolitan taxa in some regions, demonstrating the importance of combining global and regional-scale analyses.

Generalized 3D fragmentation index derived from lidar point clouds

BackgroundPoint clouds with increased point densities create new opportunities for analyzing landscape structure in 3D space. Taking advantage of these dense point clouds we have extended a 2D forest fragmentation index developed for regional scale analyses into a 3D index for analyzing vegetation structure at a much finer scale.MethodsBased on the presence or absence of points in a 3D raster (voxel model) the 3D fragmentation index is used to evaluate the configuration of a cell’s 3D neighborhood resulting in fragmentation classes such as interior, edge, or patch. In order to incorporate 3D fragmentation into subsequent conventional 2D analyses, we developed a transformation of this 3D fragmentation index into a series of 2D rasters based on index classes.ResultsWe applied this method to a point cloud obtained by airborne lidar capturing a suburban area with mixed forest cover. All processing and visualization was done in GRASS GIS, an open source, geospatial processing and remote sensing tool. The newly developed code is also publicly available and open source. The entire processing chain is available and executable through Docker for maximum reproducibility.ConclusionsWe demonstrated that this proposed index can be used to describe different types of vegetation structure making it a promising tool for remote sensing and landscape ecology. Finally, we suggest that processing point clouds using 3D raster methods including 3D raster algebra is as straightforward as using well-established 2D raster and image processing methods.

Ecological determinants of butterfly vulnerability across the European continent

In drawing up Red Lists, the extinction risks of butterflies and other insects are currently assessed mainly by using information on trends in distribution and abundance. Incorporating information on species traits may increase our ability to predict species responses to environmental change and, hence, their vulnerability. We summarized ecologically relevant life-history and climatic niche traits in principal components, and used these to explain the variation in five vulnerability indicators (Red List status, Endemicity, Range size, Habitat specialisation index, Affinity for natural habitats) for 397 European butterfly species out of 482 species present in Europe. We also evaluated a selection of 238 species to test whether phylogenetic correction affected these relationships. For all but the affinity for natural habitats, climatic niche traits predicted more variation in vulnerability than life-history traits; phylogenetic correction had no relevant influence on the findings. The life-history trait component reflecting mobility, development rate, and overwintering stage, proved the major non-climatic determinant of species vulnerability. We propose that this trait component offers a preferable alternative to the frequently used, but ecologically confusing generalist-specialist continuum. Our analysis contributes to the development of trait-based approaches to prioritise vulnerable species for conservation at a European scale. Further regional scale analyses are recommended to improve our understanding of the biological basis of species vulnerability.

A multi-regional based hybrid method for assessing life cycle energy use of buildings: A case study

Although sustainable development in the construction industry has attracted much attention, relevant studies on the regional scale analysis of industrial energy performance are still rare in China, especially for Guangdong province, which is currently on the frontier and fast track of national low-carbon development. In response, this study integrates a multi-regional input-output method with field-based operational data to quantify the total embodied energy consumption and energy transfers from the construction industry and assess the life cycle energy use of residential and office buildings in Guangdong Province. The results show that the embodied energy consumption of the provincial construction industry is localization dominant and fossil fuel oriented, which accounts for approximately 18.6% of the total regional energy consumption. The geographical connection and resource characteristic are the two factors that influence the interregional energy transmissions induced by construction activities in Guangdong province. The result of uncertainty analysis indicates that the mean value of energy intensities simulated by Monte Carlo simulation is highly consistent with the deterministic results. It is crucial to improve the accuracy of the input-output analysis by providing sufficient economic information. At last, a number of recommendations are given through the technology, product, and management aspects at the industrial and building levels. The local government and construction department can benefit from implementing such environment-friendly, technology innovative and multi-disciplinary solutions in the full-process management and improvement of energy reduction of buildings.

Evaluating Prescribed Fire Effectiveness Using Permanent Monitoring Plot Data: A Case Study

Since Euro-American settlement, ponderosa pine forests throughout the western United States have shifted from high fire frequency and open canopy savanna forests to infrequent fire and dense, closed canopy forests. Managers at Zion National Park, USA, reintroduced fire to counteract these changes and decrease the potential for high-severity fires. We analyzed existing permanent monitoring plot data collected between 1995 and 2010 to assess achievement of management objectives related to prescribed fire in ponderosa pine forests. Following first entry fire, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.) and Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii Nutt.) overstory and midstory densities declined between 10% and 45% and effectively shifted the Gambel oak diameter distribution toward larger trees. Second entry fires had a greater effect, reducing ponderosa pine and Gambel oak overstory and midstory densities between 24% and 92%. Diameter distributions of both species shifted toward fewer, larger trees following second entry fires. Total fuel load was reduced by <20% in first entry fires and by half in second entry fires. Several objectives identified by the National Park Service (e.g., overstory ponderosa pine reduction) were not achieved with either fire entry; however, power analysis indicated that sample sizes were not adequate to fully detect long term changes following first entry fires. First entry, low intensity prescribed fire alone may not meet management objectives in southwestern ponderosa pine forests. We recommend using multiple fire entries or increased fire intensity if mechanical treatments are not also being utilized concurrently. Long term fire effects data is critical to adaptive management in national parks; however, the utility of this data could be improved through increased sample sizes, consistent data archiving, and regional scale analyses.

Parameterization of oceanic whitecap fraction based on satellite observations

Abstract. In this study, the utility of satellite-based whitecap fraction (W) data for the prediction of sea spray aerosol (SSA) emission rates is explored. More specifically, the study aims at evaluating how an account for natural variability of whitecaps in the W parameterization would affect SSA mass flux predictions when using a sea spray source function (SSSF) based on the discrete whitecap method. The starting point is a data set containing W data for 2006 together with matching wind speed U10 and sea surface temperature (SST) T. Whitecap fraction W was estimated from observations of the ocean surface brightness temperature TB by satellite-borne radiometers at two frequencies (10 and 37 GHz). A global-scale assessment of the data set yielded approximately quadratic correlation between W and U10. A new global W(U10) parameterization was developed and used to evaluate an intrinsic correlation between W and U10 that could have been introduced while estimating W from TB. A regional-scale analysis over different seasons indicated significant differences of the coefficients of regional W(U10) relationships. The effect of SST on W is explicitly accounted for in a new W(U10, T) parameterization. The analysis of W values obtained with the new W(U10) and W(U10, T) parameterizations indicates that the influence of secondary factors on W is for the largest part embedded in the exponent of the wind speed dependence. In addition, the W(U10, T) parameterization is able to partially model the spread (or variability) of the satellite-based W data. The satellite-based parameterization W(U10, T) was applied in an SSSF to estimate the global SSA emission rate. The thus obtained SSA production rate for 2006 of 4.4 × 1012 kg year−1 is within previously reported estimates, however with distinctly different spatial distribution.

In situ Comparison of Tree-Ring Responses to Climate and Population Genetics: The Need to Control for Local Climate and Site Variables

Tree species responses to climate change will be greatly influenced by their evolutionary potential and their phenotypic plasticity. Investigating tree-rings responses to climate and population genetics at the regional scale is therefore crucial in assessing the tree behaviour to climate change. This study combined in situ dendroclimatology and population genetics over a latitudinal gradient and compared the variations between the two at the intra- and inter-population levels. This approach was applied on the northern marginal populations of Thuja occidentalis (eastern white-cedar) in the Canadian boreal forest. We aimed first to assess the radial growth variability (response functional trait) within populations across the gradient and to compare it with the genetic diversity (microsatellites). Second, we investigated the variability in the growth response to climate at the regional scale through the radial growth-climate relationships, and tested its correlation with environmental variables and population genetic structure. Model selection based on the Akaike Information Criteria revealed that the growth synchronicity between pairs of trees of a population covariates with both the genetic diversity of this population and the amount of precipitation (inverse correlation), although these variables only explained a small fraction of the observed variance. At the regional scale, variance partitioning and partial redundancy analysis indicate that the growth response to climate was greatly modulated by stand environmental variables, suggesting predominant plastic variations in growth-response to climate. Combining in situ dendroclimatology and population genetics is a promising way to investigate species’ response capacity to climate change in natural stands. We stress the need to control for local climate and site conditions effects on dendroclimatic response to climate to avoid misleading conclusions regarding the associations with genetic variables.

Detection and attribution of climate change at regional scale: case study of Karkheh river basin in the west of Iran

This research aims at providing a statistical framework for detection and attribution of climate variability and change at regional scale when at least 30 years of observation data are available. While extensive research has been done on detecting significant observed trends in hydroclimate variables and attribution to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in large continents, less attention has been paid for regional scale analysis. The latter is mainly important for adaptation to climate change in different sectors including but not limited to energy, agriculture, and water resources planning and management, and it is still an open discussion in many countries including the West Asian ones. In the absence of regional climate models, an informative framework is suggested providing useful insights for policymakers. It benefits from general flexibility, not being computationally expensive, and applying several trend tests to analyze temporal variations in temperature and precipitation (gradual and step changes). The framework is implemented for a very important river basin in the west of Iran. In general, some increasing and decreasing trends of the interannual precipitation and temperature have been detected. For precipitation annual time series, a reducing step was seen around 1996 compared with the gradual change in most of the stations, which have not experience a dramatical change. The range of natural forcing is found to be ±76 % for precipitation and ±1.4 °C for temperature considering a two-dimensional diagram of precipitation and temperature anomalies from 1000-year control run of global climate model (GCM). Findings out of applying the proposed framework may provide useful insights into how to approach structural and non-structural climate change adaptation strategies from central governments.

Identifying hydrological pre-conditions and rainfall triggers of slope failures at catchment scale for 2014 storm events in the Ialomita Subcarpathians, Romania

This paper addresses a regional-scale analysis of the rainfall-induced landslides for 2014 storm events based on detailed hydro-meteorological data set in the Ialomita Subcarpathians. This area is located in the western part of the Curvature Subcarpathians, a complex geological and geomorphic unit in Romania. The high temporal frequency of landslide events in the last decades (1997, 1998, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2014) leads us to considerer that these processes play a major role in the evolution of this area’s landscape where the most frequent landforms are rotational slides, translational slides, mudslides and complex movements. The rainy period between April and August 2014 induced numerous flash floods and landslides in this specific area that resulted to severe economic losses estimated to 8 million euros in Dambovita County. Spatially distributed rainfall during the main storm events estimated from adjusted radar-based precipitation was used to investigate the hydro-meteorological conditions that triggered or not landslides in the Ialomita Subcarpathians. Hydrological pre-conditions were assessed by hourly in situ soil moisture measurements at local scale and hydrological modelling at regional scale. ModClark semi distributed model implemented in HEC HMS software that integrates radar data was used to analyse catchment response to the main rainfall event that resulted to landslides in 2014. Analysis between rainfall, soil moisture conditions and direct runoff was performed for identifying the contribution of the hydro-meteorologic conditions to landsliding process in the Ialomita Subcarpathians. A detailed landslide inventory based on field mapping and visual interpretation of satellite and aerial images was completed with information from local authorities and mass media. Despite the limited number of landslide events, this study allows a detailed insight of understanding the influence of rainfall in landslide occurrence in this specific area.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS AND ULTRA-PROMINENT MOUNTAIN PEAKS

Abstract. Global Digital Elevation Models (GDEMs) are datasets of vital importance for regional-scale analysis in areas such as geomorphology, [paleo]climatology, oceanography and biodiversity. In this work I present a comparative assessment of the datasets ETOPO1 (1’ resolution), GTOPO30, GLOBE, SRTM30 PLUS, GMTED2010 and ACE2 (30”) against the altitude of the world’s ultra prominent peaks. GDEMs’ elevations show an expected tendency of underestimating the peak’s altitude, but differences reach 3,500 m. None of the GDEMs captures the full range of elevation on Earth and they do not represent well the altitude of the most prominent peaks. Some of these problems could be addressed with the release of NASADEM, but the smoothing effect caused by moving-window resampling can only be tackled by using new techniques, such as scale-adaptative kernels and curvature-based terrain generalisation.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS AND ULTRA-PROMINENT MOUNTAIN PEAKS

Global Digital Elevation Models (GDEMs) are datasets of vital importance for regional-scale analysis in areas such as geomorphology, [paleo]climatology, oceanography and biodiversity. In this work I present a comparative assessment of the datasets ETOPO1 (1’ resolution), GTOPO30, GLOBE, SRTM30 PLUS, GMTED2010 and ACE2 (30”) against the altitude of the world’s ultra prominent peaks. GDEMs’ elevations show an expected tendency of underestimating the peak’s altitude, but differences reach 3,500 m. None of the GDEMs captures the full range of elevation on Earth and they do not represent well the altitude of the most prominent peaks. Some of these problems could be addressed with the release of NASADEM, but the smoothing effect caused by moving-window resampling can only be tackled by using new techniques, such as scale-adaptative kernels and curvature-based terrain generalisation.

A Database of Radiocarbon Dates for Palaeoenvironmental Research in Eastern Africa

Radiocarbon dating is one of the most widely available and applied techniques to develop Late Quaternary chronologies of many ecosystems and is, thus, utilized in Quaternary studies, archaeology, hydrology, geomorphology, palaeoanthropology, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, palaeontology, and isotope analyses. A manual literature review search of published radiocarbon dates from eastern Africa was undertaken to store these data in the open-access format and included in the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Dates ranged from 57,804 to 0 14C years Before Present. The format of the database permits expansion of the dataset in the future and permits local, regional and global scale analyses of radiocarbon dates. This paper expands on some of these potential research areas and promote archiving of African data.

Latitudinal body-mass trends in Oligo-Miocene mammals

AbstractPaleecological data allow not only the study of trends along deep-time chronological transects but can also be used to reconstruct ecological gradients through time, which can help identify causal factors that may be strongly correlated in modern ecosystems. We have applied such an analysis to Bergmann’s rule, which posits a causal relationship between temperature and body size in mammals. Bergmann’s rule predicts that latitudinal gradients should exist during any interval of time, with larger taxa toward the poles and smaller taxa toward the equator. It also predicts that the strength of these gradients should vary with time, becoming weaker during warmer periods and stronger during colder conditions. We tested these predictions by reconstructing body-mass trends within canid and equid genera at different intervals of the Oligo-Miocene along the West Coast of North America. To allow for comparisons with modern taxa, body mass was reconstructed along the same transect for modernCanisandOdocoileus. Of the 17 fossil genera analyzed, only two showed the expected positive relationship with latitude, nor was there consistent evidence for a relationship between paleotemperature and body mass. Likewise, the strength of body-size gradients does not change predictably with climate through time. The evidence for clear gradients is ambiguous even in the modern genera analyzed. These results suggest that, counter to Bergmann’s rule, temperature alone is not a primary driver of body size and underscore the importance of regional-scale paleoecological analyses in identifying such drivers.

Geomorphometric assessment of drainage systems in a semi-arid region of Argentina using geospatial tools and multivariate statistics

In semi-arid environments there is often a lack of data on hydrological variables that limits the ability to understand key hydrological processes. In response to this need, geomorphometric analysis is a quantitative approach that has proven to be useful. This work aims to assess and classify 35 exorheic drainage basins located in a semi-arid area of Argentina (Northeastern Patagonia) according to their geomorphometric properties by using GIS technology and principal component (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) multivariate techniques. In addition, an assessment of automated drainage network extraction accuracy was performed by comparing it with the actual drainage network. The study showed that it was possible to derive automated drainage networks with errors lower than 6 %. By comparing both PCA and CA, it was found that the former allows a good understanding of the clustering of basins from the CA. All basins were clustered into four groups following a significant spatial continuity. This type of study gives the basis for regional-scale analysis, and provides further information for subsequent modeling.

Spatial patterns and environmental controls of particulate organic carbon in surface waters in the conterminous United States

Carbon cycling in inland waters has been identified as an important, but poorly constrained component of the global carbon cycle. In this study, we compile and analyze particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration data from 1145U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gauge stations to investigate the spatial variability and environmental controls of POC concentration. We observe substantial spatial variability in POC concentration (1.43±2.56mgC/L, mean±one standard deviation), with the Upper Mississippi River basin and the Piedmont region in the eastern U.S. having the highest POC concentration. Further, we employ generalized linear models (GLMs) to analyze the impacts of sediment transport and algae growth as well as twenty-one other environmental factors on the POC variability. Suspended sediment and chlorophyll-a explain 26% and 17% of the variability in POC concentration, respectively. At the national level, the twenty-one environmental factors combined can explain ca. 40% of the spatial variance in POC concentration. At the national scale, urban area and soil clay content show significant negative correlations with POC concentration, whereas soil water content and soil bulk density correlate positively with POC. In addition, total phosphorus concentration and dam density correlate positively with POC concentration. Furthermore, regional scale analyses reveal substantial variation in environmental controls of POC concentration across eighteen major water resource regions in the U.S. The POC concentration and associated environmental controls also vary non-monotonically from headwaters to large rivers. These findings indicate complex interactions among multiple factors in regulating POC concentration over different spatial scales and across various sections of the river networks. This complexity, together with the large unexplained uncertainty, highlights the need for considering non-linear interplays of multiple environmental factors and developing appropriate methodologies to track the transformation and transport of POC along the terrestrial-aquatic interfaces.

Mapping regional patterns of large forest fires in Wildland–Urban Interface areas in Europe

Over recent decades, Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) trends in many regions of Europe have reconfigured the landscape structures around many urban areas. In these areas, the proximity to landscape elements with high forest fuels has increased the fire risk to people and property. These Wildland–Urban Interface areas (WUI) can be defined as landscapes where anthropogenic urban land use and forest fuel mass come into contact. Mapping their extent is needed to prioritize fire risk control and inform local forest fire risk management strategies. This study proposes a method to map the extent and spatial patterns of the European WUI areas at continental scale. Using the European map of WUI areas, the hypothesis is tested that the distance from the nearest WUI area is related to the forest fire probability. Statistical relationships between the distance from the nearest WUI area, and large forest fire incidents from satellite remote sensing were subsequently modelled by logistic regression analysis. The first European scale map of the WUI extent and locations is presented. Country-specific positive and negative relationships of large fires and the proximity to the nearest WUI area are found. A regional-scale analysis shows a strong influence of the WUI zones on large fires in parts of the Mediterranean regions. Results indicate that the probability of large burned surfaces increases with diminishing WUI distance in touristic regions like Sardinia, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, or in regions with a strong peri-urban component as Catalunya, Comunidad de Madrid, Comunidad Valenciana. For the above regions, probability curves of large burned surfaces show statistical relationships (ROC value > 0.5) inside a 5000 m buffer of the nearest WUI. Wise land management can provide a valuable ecosystem service of fire risk reduction that is currently not explicitly included in ecosystem service valuations. The results re-emphasise the importance of including this ecosystem service in landscape valuations to account for the significant landscape function of reducing the risk of catastrophic large fires.