Ecosystems across the world have evolved with fire as an essential process, and many cultures have traditionally used fire to manage landscapes in their favor. The last century, however, has seen expanding human infrastructure and altered land management practices. In North America, a legacy of fire suppression, coupled with a drastic expansion of the wildland-urban interface, means that fire now poses a greater risk to both ecosystems and human systems. More recently, the impacts of climate change have altered fire regimes still further. As fires become more intense, the annual burned area expands, and the fire season grows longer across parts of the continent, human systems will need to adapt to achieve resilience to wildfire. However, “adaptation” is easier said than done given the many components of fire risk-from smoke that lowers air quality across national borders, to the compounding challenges of socioeconomic inequality, to vulnerable essential infrastructure like water and energy. Further, adaptation will also require collective action spanning scales from individual backyards to across international borders.
This complexity calls for transdisciplinary expertise and collaboration among different management agencies. This Cell Press Forum on Sustainability will feature a wide-ranging discussion on what contributes to fire risk and what is needed to mitigate those risks for a more fire-resilient future.
Негізгі бет Navigating the Pyrocene: Managing fire risk in a warming world
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