- The amount of land consumed by wildfires in North America each year is rising
- Researchers say this is at least partially due to climate change
- Climate changes lengthen wildfire seasons, allowing for more annual damage
- The scientists behind the report hope it helps land management agencies
Deadly wildfires that consume hundreds of thousands of acres and cause billions of dollars of damage are becoming more prevalent, scientists have warned.
The amount of acreage destroyed by these fires each year in western North America will multiply by five, at least, in the next few decades, according to a new report.
Wildfires have extreme costs on human life and the local economies, forcing many to have to rebuild.
And, researchers now warn the effects could soon be even worse.
Scientists have found that the amount of land consumed annually by wildfires in North America is set to increase in the coming decades. Areas labeled red on this map will see the greatest increases while dark blue areas will see the smallest
Scientists from the University of Arizona, the University of California and Argentina's Universidad Nacional del Comahue contributed to the new report, published in the journal Plos One.
The team examined how much land had been burned by wildfires in western North America over 34 years for the new analysis.
They did this to flesh out the ways seasonal climates regulate regional fires, taking into account temperatures and snowfall levels.
The key measurement in the research was the annual area burned.
Scientists looked at how many fires happened in certain areas each year to figure the annual area burned, but they also took into consideration the sizes of wildfires.
The report noted the area burned is not necessarily a reflection of a fire's severity.
The researchers found rainfall levels combined with spring, summer and winter temperatures influenced the annual area burned measurements.
Winter and spring temperatures regulate the amount of snow left sitting on the ground, which dictates the time of the onset of fire season.
The researchers created a model that could estimate the amount of area that would be burned by wildfires in each of the geographic locations the team focused on.
They tested this model by plugging in statistics from the past seven years to make sure it estimated the correct amount of annual area burned.
But the model cannot make predictions about events to come after the mid-21st century because researchers do not know about vegetation changes that might take place beyond the coming decades.
More than half of the US Forest Service's budget is spent responding to wildfires, leaving the government agency with little funding for restoration and public education initiatives (file photo)
The model predicted that half the territories the researchers studied will see the total annual area burned multiplied by five, at the least, in the coming decades.
The largest increases will be seen in the interior western areas, the researchers said.
According to University of Arizona professor Don Falk, changes in the climate are prolonging fire seasons, allowing for more time for acreage to burn.
He said: 'Wildfires act as a multiplier of other forces such as climate change, exposing more and more areas not only to the immediate effects of fire but also to the resulting cascade of ecological, hydrological economic and social consequences.'
These devastating fires will take a toll on the economy as well as the community, the study warned.
'These will be billion-dollar fires. We're just not ready for fire impacts of this kind, including post-fire effects from flooding after fire,' Professor Falk said.
Wildfires in 2017 cost California alone more than $180 billion, according to the analysis.
It said: 'This [figure] includes not only the immediate costs of firefighting, but also the much larger costs of landscape rehabilitation; medical and hospital costs; insurance losses and the costs of replacing thousands of homes and other buildings; lost economic productivity from the destruction of businesses; repair and replacement of key infrastructure such as roads, power lines and dams; and weeks of lost income by employees.'
The researchers responsible for the new report are hopeful their study can help land management agencies plan for the future.
HOW ARE WILDFIRES STARTED?
The amount of land in North America devastated by wildfires each year is set to rise, according to new research (file photo)
The 'Thomas Fire' destroyed 281,893 acres in California last December.
Additionally, British Columbia's Nazko Complex Fire last year consumed more than a million acres, making it the largest ever recorded in the province.
But the amount of land destroyed by wildfires each year will only go up in western and northern North America in the years to come, according to a new report published in the journal Plos One.
Up to 90 percent of US wildfires are caused by people, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
These fires can be initiated by unattended campfires, piles of burning debris, haphazardly discarded cigarettes or arson.
The remaining tenth of wildfires not started by humans are attributed to either lighting or lava.
Such agencies are currently being stretched thin by the costs of destructive wildfires.
For example, the US Forest Service shells out more than 50 percent of its budget responding to wildfires.
This leaves the agency little wiggle room to maintain ecosystem restoration and public education initiatives.
The report said: 'In years when seasonal climate drives lengthy fire seasons, fire management resources may be stretched to the limit.
'Knowing about future regional variation in the projected annual area burned can help land managers and policy makers prepare for the possibility of extremely large fire years.'
Falk explained: 'Ultimately, this means that the large fire seasons of recent years, such as the one just ending, are likely to occur more frequently, affecting ecosystems, communities and public safety.
'We hope that this research will be a wake-up call to public agencies and legislatures at all levels of government that the fire problem is not going to get any smaller in coming decades.
'If anything, we need a serious, fact-based national dialogue about how to sustain our forests and woodlands through smart management and policy.'
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "HOW ARE WILDFIRES STARTED?"
Post a Comment