Community Risk and Resilience to Wildfires: Rethinking the Complex Human–Climate–Fire Relationship in High-Latitude Regions

Ivan Villaverde Canosa (), James Ford, Jouni Paavola and Daria Burnasheva
Additional contact information
Ivan Villaverde Canosa: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
James Ford: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Jouni Paavola: School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Daria Burnasheva: Folk and Traditional Arts Department, Arctic State Institute of Culture Arts, Yakutsk 677000, Russia

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-22

Abstract: Community risk and resilience to high-latitude wildfires has received limited conceptual attention, with a comprehensive, integrated framework that unpacks the complex human–fire–climate relationship in high-latitude environments largely missing. In this paper, we use insights from both the climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction literature to build a conceptual framework to understand the factors and dynamics of risk and resilience to wildfires at the community level in high-latitude regions. Using an illustrative case study, the framework demonstrates how unique social and ecological features of high-latitude communities elevate their risk of wildfires and emphasizes the need to think holistically about the different spatial–temporal interactions and interdependencies between fire, humans, and climate in these regions. We find that remoteness, indigeneity, subsistence-based activities, and colonial practices, along with accelerated climate warming, are notable features influencing community risk and resilience to wildfires in high-latitude regions. This framework can help unravel the complex nature of wildfires, guide stakeholders through each phase of the disaster process, and facilitate the development and design of wildfire-related policies and strategies in high-latitude regions.

Keywords: climate change; wildfire; risk; resilience; adaptation; vulnerability; disaster; conceptual framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/3/957/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/3/957/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:3:p:957-:d:1324506

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().