Impact of human factors on wildfire occurrence in Mississippi, United States

Grala, Katarzyna; Grala, Robert K.; Hussain, Anwar; Cooke, William H.; Varner, J. Morgan

doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2017.04.011

Cited by 30 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The explanations that increased fire frequency or season length would reduce FRP and size are as follows: (a) human fires, which are more frequent, preclude large, intense fires that require time for sufficient fuel accumulation; and/or (b) human fires, which occur over a longer season length, are more likely to burn in times that are not amenable to large, intense fires (e.g., wetter conditions Balch et al, ). Although these explanations may be true in part, much previous work modelling wildfire occurrence has found that human‐started fires often occur close to infrastructure (Grala & Cooke, ; Grala, Grala, Hussain, Cooke, & Varner, ), indicating that these fires may be easier to detect, more likely to be suppressed due to earlier detection and threatened human structures, and easier to access for suppression efforts – which would contribute to anthropogenic fires being less intense and smaller.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Anthropogenic and lightning‐started fires are becoming larger and more frequent over a longer season length in the U.S.A.

Cattau

Wessman

Mahood

et al. 2020

Global Ecol Biogeogr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim Over the past several decades, wildfires have become larger, more frequent, and/or more severe in many areas. Simultaneously, anthropogenic ignitions are steadily growing. We have little understanding of how increasing anthropogenic ignitions are changing modern fire regimes. Location Conterminous United States. Time period 1984–2016. Major taxa studied Vegetation. Methods We aggregated fire radiative power (FRP)‐based fire intensity, event size, burned area, frequency, season length, and ignition type data from > 1.8 million government records and remote sensing data at a 50‐km resolution. We evaluated the relationship between fire physical characteristics and ignition type to determine if and how modern U.S.A. fire regimes are changing sensu stricto given increased anthropogenic ignitions, and how those patterns vary over space and time. Results At a national scale, wildfires occur over longer fire seasons (17% increase) and have become larger (78%) and more frequent (12%), but not necessarily more intense. Further, human ignitions have increased 9% proportionally. The proportion of human ignitions has a negative relationship with fire size and FRP and a positive relationship with fire frequency and season length. Areas dominated by lightning ignitions experience fires that are 2.4 times more intense and 9.2 times larger. Areas dominated by human ignitions experience fires that are twice as frequent and have a fire season that is 2.4 times longer. The effect of human ignitions on fire characteristics varies regionally. Ecoregions in the eastern U.S.A. and in some parts of the coastal western U.S.A. have no areas dominated by lightning ignitions. For the remaining ecoregions, more intense and larger fires are associated with lightning ignitions, and longer season lengths are associated with human ignitions. Main conclusions Increasing anthropogenic ignitions – in tandem with climate and land cover change – are contributing to a ‘new normal’ of fire activity across continental scales.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…conditions Balch et al, 2017). Although these explanations may be true in part, much previous work modelling wildfire occurrence has found that human-started fires often occur close to infrastructure (Grala & Cooke, 2010;Grala, Grala, Hussain, Cooke, & Varner, 2017),…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic and lightning‐started fires are becoming larger and more frequent over a longer season length in the U.S.A.

Cattau

Wessman

Mahood

et al. 2020

Global Ecol Biogeogr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The focus of this study is on medium to large events in terms of burned area, and all occurrences with a burned area larger than 100 ha were selected for this purpose . This research should result in beneficial developments in awareness, prevention and wildfire policies and advances in the effective mitigation of large wildfires (Grala et al 2017), specifically in the Portuguese context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multivariate approach to assess the structural determinants of large wildfires: evidence from a Mediterranean country

Sousa

Cruz-Jesus

Sousa

et al. 2021

Int. J. Wildland Fire

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper analyses the factors behind wildfire propagation in a Mediterranean European country, Portugal, using a set of variables related to vegetation and climatic, topography and human aspects. Spatial cluster analysis was used to find homogeneous regions, and two-part regression models were used to model the contribution of the different elements driving extensive fire propagation. Our findings confirm the presence of spatial variability in the contribution exerted by most structural factors driving large wildfire spread. Additionally, the results of this study show that vegetation types, in particular the presence of shrubs, and a lack of human activities, such as agriculture, represent the main factors facilitating fire spread in this region, corroborating information from previous work. This research provides relevant input for implementation in different fields, from large fire awareness and prevention to the development of wildfire policies, as well as addressing methodological concerns in fire danger and fire risk analyses.

show abstract

“…Earlier studies have investigated the factors affecting wildfire spatial distribution [9]. A high probability of fire occurrence was ascribed to weather (e.g., [10,11]), climate (e.g., [12][13][14]), landscape fuel conditions (e.g., [15,16]), soil moisture (e.g., [17]), ignition agents (e.g., [18,19]), and human pressure (e.g., [20,21]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Wildfires Knocking on the Built-Up Areas Door?

Mancini

Elia

Barbati

et al. 2018

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human-started fires represent the vast majority of wildfires in Mediterranean countries. The current expansion of human settlements into fire-prone territories has led to the creation of landscapes where anthropogenic developments merge with wildland areas. In this context, understanding the role of distance from built-up areas in shaping coarse-scale wildfire spatial patterns is a major concern. Proximity to cities has become an important factor that may increase the probability of wildfires in wildland-urban interfaces. To this issue, we developed an assessment of wildfire distribution in Italy over an 8-year period (2007-2014) to quantify fire occurrence and recurrence as a function of distance from built-up areas. Our findings suggest a positive relationship between the distance from built-up areas and fire incidence (i.e., ratio between burnt forest area and total forest area), whereas a negative relation was found between distance from built-up areas and fire frequency and recurrence; thus, there are more recurring yet smaller sized-fires near built-up areas. Fifty percent of fire events and more than two-thirds of recurrent fires occur within 200 m from built-up areas. On the other hand, the considerable amount of such fire events never reaches an incidence higher than 10% in flat areas and 30% in hilly and mountainous areas. More broadly, quantitative knowledge about where fires occur is essential to ensure appropriate fire management throughout large territories. With this in mind, our investigation intends to provide a solid base for further studies in landscapes with a high component of human-dominated land use.

show abstract

Impact of human factors on wildfire occurrence in Mississippi, United States

Cited by 30 publications

References 39 publications

Anthropogenic and lightning‐started fires are becoming larger and more frequent over a longer season length in the U.S.A.

Anthropogenic and lightning‐started fires are becoming larger and more frequent over a longer season length in the U.S.A.

A multivariate approach to assess the structural determinants of large wildfires: evidence from a Mediterranean country

Are Wildfires Knocking on the Built-Up Areas Door?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About