Land Use and Wildfire: A Review of Local Interactions and Teleconnections

Butsic Van, Maggi Kelly and Max A. Moritz
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Butsic Van: Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Maggi Kelly: Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Max A. Moritz: Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Land, 2015, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Fire is a naturally occurring process of most terrestrial ecosystems as well as a tool for changing land use. Since the beginning of history humans have used fire as a mechanism for creating areas suitable for agriculture and settlement. As fires threaten human dominated landscapes, fire risk itself has become a driver of landscape change, impacting landscapes through land use regulations and fire management. Land use changes also influence fire ignition frequency and fuel loads and hence alters fire regimes. The impact of these changes is often exacerbated as new land users demand alternative fire management strategies, which can impact land cover and management far from where land use change has actually occurred. This creates nuanced land use teleconnections between source areas for fires and economic cores, which demand and fund fire protection. Here we will review the role of fire and fire risk as a driver of land use change, the ways land use changes impact drivers of fire, and suggest that the integration of land use teleconnections into the fire/land use discussion can help us better understand and manage the complex interactions between fire and land use.

Keywords: wildfire; land use change; teleconnections; wildland urban interface (WUI); fire risk; regulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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