The global wildland–urban interface

Franz Schug (), Avi Bar-Massada, Amanda R. Carlson, Heather Cox, Todd J. Hawbaker, David Helmers, Patrick Hostert, Dominik Kaim, Neda K. Kasraee, Sebastián Martinuzzi, Miranda H. Mockrin, Kira A. Pfoch and Volker C. Radeloff
Additional contact information
Franz Schug: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Avi Bar-Massada: University of Haifa at Oranim
Amanda R. Carlson: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
Heather Cox: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Todd J. Hawbaker: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
David Helmers: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Patrick Hostert: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Dominik Kaim: Jagiellonian University
Neda K. Kasraee: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Sebastián Martinuzzi: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Miranda H. Mockrin: Northern Research Station, US Department of Agriculture Forest Service
Kira A. Pfoch: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Volker C. Radeloff: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Nature, 2023, vol. 621, issue 7977, 94-99

Abstract: Abstract The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is where buildings and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle1,2. It is where human–environmental conflicts and risks can be concentrated, including the loss of houses and lives to wildfire, habitat loss and fragmentation and the spread of zoonotic diseases3. However, a global analysis of the WUI has been lacking. Here, we present a global map of the 2020 WUI at 10 m resolution using a globally consistent and validated approach based on remote sensing-derived datasets of building area4 and wildland vegetation5. We show that the WUI is a global phenomenon, identify many previously undocumented WUI hotspots and highlight the wide range of population density, land cover types and biomass levels in different parts of the global WUI. The WUI covers only 4.7% of the land surface but is home to nearly half its population (3.5 billion). The WUI is especially widespread in Europe (15% of the land area) and the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome (18%). Of all people living near 2003–2020 wildfires (0.4 billion), two thirds have their home in the WUI, most of them in Africa (150 million). Given that wildfire activity is predicted to increase because of climate change in many regions6, there is a need to understand housing growth and vegetation patterns as drivers of WUI change.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06320-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nat:nature:v:621:y:2023:i:7977:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06320-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06320-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().