Download or read book Very Large Wildfires in the Western Contiguous United States written by Erica Natasha Stavros and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wildfires, especially the largest ones, can have lasting ecological and social effects both directly on the landscape and indirectly on the atmosphere and climate. Both climate and fire regimes are expected to change into the future while air quality, the composition of the atmosphere, continues to be regulated. It is necessary to understand how climate, wildfire, and air quality interact to mitigate air quality. Existing studies, however, span spatial and temporal scales necessary for only linking two components at a time (e.g. climate and wildfire or wildfire and air quality). Appropriate scales of data and modeling are required to integrate all three components and understand the system as a whole. To lay the foundation for studying interactions among these three components, I investigated the relationship between climate and very large wildfires, here defined as megafires (greater than or equal to 50,000 ac ~ 20,234 ha), at spatial and temporal scales appropriate for future work to bridge results into air quality modeling. In this dissertation, I demonstrated, using a systematic approach, that broad spatial and fine temporal resolutions are the best scales by which to understand how climate, wildfire, and air quality interact. Thus, using broad wildfire data aggregated to the spatial scale of eight US National Interagency Fire Center Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACCs) across the western contiguous US, and daily and monthly climate data, I developed logistic regression models to predict the probability that a megafire will occur in a given week. Significant climate predictors of megafires vary by GACC and are similar to those found by other studies for aggregate annual area burned. Thus megafires may influence the analysis of aggregate statistics substantially. For all eight GACCs, projecting these models showed a significant (p is less than or equal to 0.05) difference between the historical period from 1979 to 2010 and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change future scenarios, representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5, during 2031 to 2060. Generally, with the exception of the Southwest and Northern California, megafires will be more likely both throughout the fire season and from year to year, with more pronounced patterns under RCP 8.5 than RCP 4.5. This work investigates the effects of a changing climate on megafires at scales that can aid policy and management to mitigate their effects. It also provides a foundation by which to improve understanding of the climate and carbon systems. Lastly, it illuminates the need to investigate how fire statistics are aggregated and how this affects climate associations.

Download or read book Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters written by Fantina Tedim and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2019-11-22 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters: Root Causes and New Management Strategies highlights the urgent need for new methods to prepare and mitigate the effects of these events. Using a multidisciplinary, socio-ecological approach, the book discusses the roots of the problem, presenting a new, innovative approach to wildfire mitigation based on the operational concept of Fire Smart Territory (FST). Under the guidance of its expert editors, the book highlights new ways to prevent and respond to extreme wildfire events and disasters through sustainable development, thus revealing better management methods and increasing protection of both the natural environment and the vulnerable communities within it. Reveals the complexity of extreme wildfire events and disasters in an accessible, comprehensive and multidisciplinary way Reviews the ground-breaking concept of Fire Smart Territory (FST) which offers an opportunity to reduce wildfire occurrence and severity through measures that promote sustainable development Proposes a new perspective on disaster risk reduction to help researchers, planners and professionals successfully adapt their methods for mitigating current and future issues

Download or read book Mixed Severity Fires written by Dominick A. DellaSala and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2024-06-21 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of Mixed Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix focuses on wildfire as a keystone ecological process that has shaped plant and animal communities for over 400 million years. The book will describe the renewal process that follows wildfires in forests and chaparral ecosystems as "nature’s phoenix" by drawing from examples of wildfire effects in several regions of the world.In addition, the book will describe management and policies that have contributed to wildfire problems, including climate change and land-use practices incompatible with nature’s phoenix and what must happen to get to coexistence with wildfires that are not going away no matter how much we try to suppress or alter fire behavior. This second edition of Mixed Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix provides a comprehensive reference for documenting and synthesizing fire's ecological role. Comprehensive and complete reference on wildfire ecology that includes the latest science and citations Debunks debates on wildfire management that can be used by conservation groups and decision-makers to shift egregious wildfire policies Contains a broad synthesis of the ecology of mixed- and high-severity fires, covering such topics as vegetation, birds, mammals, insects, aquatics, and management actions

Download or read book Severe Wildland Fires written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dangerous accumulations of brush, small trees, and other vegetation on federal lands, particularly in the western United States, have helped fuel devastating wildfires in recent years. Although a single focal point is critical for directing firefighting efforts by federal, state, and local governments, GAO found a lack of clearly defined leadership at the federal level. Authority and responsibility remain fragmented among the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, and the states. Implementation of a performance accountability network also remains fragmented. As a result, GAO could not determine if the $796 million earmarked for hazardous fuels reduction in 2001 and 2002 has been targeted to communities and areas at highest risk. The five federal land management agencies--the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Forest Service--have yet to begin the research needed to identify and prioritize vulnerable communities near high-risk federal lands. Moreover, the agencies are not collecting the data needed to determine if changes are needed to expedite the project-planning process. They also are not collecting data needed to measure the effectiveness of efforts to dispose of the large amount of brush and other vegetation on federal lands.

Download or read book Wildland Fire written by Michael John Gollner and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2020-08-28 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Wildfire written by Heather Hansen and published by Mountaineers Books. This book was released on 2018-02-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author was embedded with one of the busiest wildfire crews in the United States Reveals wildfires through the experiences of the people who go face-to-face with them Focuses on challenges faced in Western states. Every year wildfires ravage forests, destroy communities, and devastate human lives, with only the bravery of dedicated firefighters creating a barrier against even greater destruction. Throughout the 2016 wildfire season, journalist Heather Hansen witnessed firsthand the heroics of the Station 8 crew in Boulder, Colorado. She tells that story here, layered with the added context of the history, science, landscape, and human behavior that, year-by-year, increases the severity, frequency, and costs of conflagrations in the West. She examines the changes in both mindset and activity around wildfires and tracks the movement from wildfire as something useful, to something feared, to something necessary but roundly dreaded. Wildfire shares the drama, hardships, and experiences of the firefighters who try, sometimes in vain, to prevent destruction when a spark flares out of control. Hansen tells the rich and frightening stories of the firefighters themselves and the challenges they face: a safety system struggling to keep up with fire seasons that are lengthening, fires that are becoming more extreme, and agencies that are struggling to cover the bills.

Download or read book Disentanglement of Wildfire Trends Over the Contiguous United States Using Remote Sensing Observations and Geopolitical Boundaries written by John Carlos Salguero and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding dynamic fire regimes are fundamental to minimize negative impacts on the environment, society, and economy. A notion with growing importance because of recent wildfire activities demonstrating an increase in both frequency and size across the United States (US). While previous studies have examined wildfire regimes through the context of ecoregions, this study analyzes fire activities through the framework of Geographic Area Coordination Center (GACC) regions over 34-years, 1984-2017. GACCs are geopolitical boundaries designed to promote an efficient way to distribute resources during emergencies such as wildfires. This study uses observations from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) database, which records large fire events that are 1000 (500) acres or greater in the Western (Eastern) US. Using the GACC and MTBS data, this study examines wildfire regimes beyond the Western US by analyzing the following three parameters: total burned area, frequency, and average burned area. Through linear regression and Mann-Kendall test, this study disentangles the specific characteristics of wildfire trends in terms of changing size, changing temporal structure, and changing intensity. Results demonstrate that most of the GACC regions in the Contiguous US have positive trends in one or more of the observed parameters. This study goes beyond previous work by finding significant trends in the average burned area parameter, importance for the Great Basin, and California GACCs. Lastly, this study examines precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, and vapor pressure deficit trends within GACC regions in an attempt to understand the variability of the observed wildfire trends.

Download or read book Fire Ecology and Management Past Present and Future of US Forested Ecosystems written by Cathryn H. Greenberg and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume presents original scientific research and knowledge synthesis covering the past, present, and potential future fire ecology of major US forest types, with implications for forest management in a changing climate. The editors and authors highlight broad patterns among ecoregions and forest types, as well as detailed information for individual ecoregions, for fire frequencies and severities, fire effects on tree mortality and regeneration, and levels of fire-dependency by plant and animal communities. The foreword addresses emerging ecological and fire management challenges for forests, in relation to sustainable development goals as highlighted in recent government reports. An introductory chapter highlights patterns of variation in frequencies, severities, scales, and spatial patterns of fire across ecoregions and among forested ecosystems across the US in relation to climate, fuels, topography and soils, ignition sources (lightning or anthropogenic), and vegetation. Separate chapters by respected experts delve into the fire ecology of major forest types within US ecoregions, with a focus on the level of plant and animal fire-dependency, and the role of fire in maintaining forest composition and structure. The regional chapters also include discussion of historic natural (lightning-ignited) and anthropogenic (Native American; settlers) fire regimes, current fire regimes as influenced by recent decades of fire suppression and land use history, and fire management in relation to ecosystem integrity and restoration, wildfire threat, and climate change. The summary chapter combines the major points of each chapter, in a synthesis of US-wide fire ecology and forest management into the future. This book provides current, organized, readily accessible information for the conservation community, land managers, scientists, students and educators, and others interested in how fire behavior and effects on structure and composition differ among ecoregions and forest types, and what that means for forest management today and in the future.

Download or read book Climate Variability and Change in the 21th Century written by Stefanos Stefanidis and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: - Water resources management should be assessed under climate change conditions, as historic data cannot replicate future climatic conditions. - Climate change impacts on water resources are bound to affect all water uses, i.e., irrigated agriculture, domestic and industrial water supply, hydropower generation, and environmental flow (of streams and rivers) and water level (of lakes). - Bottom-up approaches, i.e., the forcing of hydrologic simulation models with climate change models’ outputs, are the most common engineering practices and considered as climate-resilient water management approaches. - Hydrologic simulations forced by climate change scenarios derived from regional climate models (RCMs) can provide accurate assessments of the future water regime at basin scales. - Irrigated agriculture requires special attention as it is the principal water consumer and alterations of both precipitation and temperature patterns will directly affect agriculture yields and incomes. - Integrated water resources management (IWRM) requires multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, with climate change to be an emerging cornerstone in the IWRM concept.

Download or read book The Climate Report written by U.S. Global Change Research Program and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To hide its dramatic findings, the government quietly released its mandated Climate Assessment Report on Black Friday 2018. Now, this full color reproduction is the definitive edition of ”the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on the United States” (The New York Times), which every citizen should own. The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is mandated by law "at least every four years ... to submit to the president and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of ... the effects of global change, and current and major long-term trends in global change." The report was released by the Trump administration without fanfare in the wake of a series of some of the most devastating hurricanes in American history, as well as the horrific California wildfires. As the report says, "The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid." Detailing not only the destructive toll of global warming on the environment, but also the related health issues leading to tens of thousands of deaths per year, and economic losses of tens of billions of dollars, the report concludes that "The evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats ... are rising."

Download or read book Wildland Fire Smoke in the United States written by David L. Peterson and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-11 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book synthesizes current information on wildland fire smoke in the United States, providing a scientific foundation for addressing the production of smoke from wildland fires. This will be increasingly critical as smoke exposure and degraded air quality are expected to increase in extent and severity in a warmer climate. Accurate smoke information is a foundation for helping individuals and communities to effectively mitigate potential smoke impacts from wildfires and prescribed fires. The book documents our current understanding of smoke science for (1) primary physical, chemical, and biological issues related to wildfire and prescribed fire, (2) key social issues, including human health and economic impacts, and (3) current and anticipated management and regulatory issues. Each chapter provides a summary of priorities for future research that provide a roadmap for developing scientific information that can improve smoke and fire management over the next decade.

Download or read book The Pyrocene written by Stephen J. Pyne and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative rethinking of how humans and fire have evolved together over time—and our responsibility to reorient this relationship before it's too late.​ The Pyrocene tells the story of what happened when a fire-wielding species, humanity, met an especially fire-receptive time in Earth's history. Since terrestrial life first appeared, flames have flourished. Over the past two million years, however, one genus gained the ability to manipulate fire, swiftly remaking both itself and eventually the world. We developed small guts and big heads by cooking food; we climbed the food chain by cooking landscapes; and now we have become a geologic force by cooking the planet. Some fire uses have been direct: fire applied to convert living landscapes into hunting grounds, forage fields, farms, and pastures. Others have been indirect, through pyrotechnologies that expanded humanity's reach beyond flame's grasp. Still, preindustrial and Indigenous societies largely operated within broad ecological constraints that determined how, and when, living landscapes could be burned. These ancient relationships between humans and fire broke down when people began to burn fossil biomass—lithic landscapes—and humanity's firepower became unbounded. Fire-catalyzed climate change globalized the impacts into a new geologic epoch. The Pleistocene yielded to the Pyrocene. Around fires, across millennia, we have told stories that explained the world and negotiated our place within it. The Pyrocene continues that tradition, describing how we have remade the Earth and how we might recover our responsibilities as keepers of the planetary flame.

Download or read book The Colorado Front Range written by Thomas T. Veblen and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Natural Hazards written by Edward A. Keller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-29 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new revised fifth edition of Natural Hazards remains the go-to introductory-level survey intended for university and college courses that are concerned with earth processes that have direct, and often sudden and violent, impacts on human society. The text integrates principles of geology, hydrology, meteorology, climatology, oceanography, soil science, ecology, and solar system astronomy. The textbook explains the earth processes that drive hazardous events in an understandable way, illustrates how these processes interact with our civilization, and describes how we can better adjust to their effects. Written by leading scholars in the area, the new edition of this book takes advantage of the greatly expanding amount of information regarding natural hazards, disasters, and catastrophes. The text is designed for learning, with chapters broken into small consumable chunks of content for students. Each chapter opens with a list of learning objectives and ends with revision as well as high-level critical thinking questions. A Concepts in Review feature provides an innovative end-of-chapter section that breaks down the chapter content by parts: reviewing the learning objectives, summary points, important visuals, and key terms. New case studies of hazardous events have been integrated into the text, and students are invited to actively apply their understanding of the five fundamental concepts that serve as a conceptual framework for the text. Figures, illustrations, and photos have been updated throughout. The book is designed for a course in natural hazards for nonscience majors, and a primary goal of the text is to assist instructors in guiding students who may have little background in science to understand physical earth processes as natural hazards and their consequences to society.

Download or read book The Landscape Ecology of Fire written by Donald McKenzie and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global warming is expected to change fire regimes, likely increasing the severity and extent of wildfires in many ecosystems around the world. What will be the landscape-scale effects of these altered fire regimes? Within what theoretical contexts can we accurately assess these effects? We explore the possible effects of altered fire regimes on landscape patch dynamics, dominant species (tree, shrub, or herbaceous) and succession, sensitive and invasive plant and animal species and communities, and ecosystem function. Ultimately, we must consider the human dimension: what are the policy and management implications of increased fire disturbance, and what are the implications for human communities?

Download or read book The 1978 National Fire Danger Rating System written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Century of Wildland Fire Research written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although ecosystems, humans, and fire have coexisted for millennia, changes in geology, ecology, hydrology, and climate as well as sociocultural, regulatory, and economic factors have converged to make wildland fire management exceptionally challenging for U.S. federal, state, and local authorities. Given the mounting, unsustainable costs and difficulty translating existing wildland fire science into policy, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a 1-day workshop to focus on how a century of wildland fire research can contribute to improving wildland fire management. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.