Economic drivers of global fire activity: A critical review using the DPSIR framework
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the pressing need to identify and incorporate economic elements shaping global wildfire activities and synthesize their current understanding of economic drivers of wildfires, leveraging the DPSIR framework to structure the issues related to wildfires to establish coherent causal pathways between drivers (D), pressure (P), states (S), impacts (I), and responses (R).
About: This article is published in Forest Policy and Economics.The article was published on 2021-10-01. It has received 5 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: DPSIR & Global governance.
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01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: The authors employed the hedonic price framework to examine the effects of 256 wildfires and environmental amenities on home values in northwest Montana between June 1996 and January 2007 and found that environmental amenities, including proximity to lakes, national forests, Glacier National Park and golf courses, have large positive effects on property values.
Abstract: This study employed the hedonic price framework to examine the effects of 256 wildfires and environmental amenities on home values in northwest Montana between June 1996 and January 2007. The study revealed environmental amenities, including proximity to lakes, national forests, Glacier National Park and golf courses, have large positive effects on property values in northwest Montana. However, proximity to and view of wildfire burned areas has had large and persistent negative effects on home values. The analysis supports an argument that homebuyers may correlate proximity to and view of a wildfire burned area with increased wildfire risk. Indeed, when a burned area is not visible from a home, wildfire risk appears to be out of sight and out of mind for homebuyers. Findings from this research can be used to inform debate about efficient allocation of resources to wildfire preparedness, including public education programs, and suppression activities around the wildland-urban interface.
8 citations
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the effects of repeated forest fires that are several years apart in a small geographical area and found that repeated fire outbreaks caused house prices to decrease for houses located near the fires.
Abstract: Unlike most hedonic studies that analyze the effects of a one-time event, this paper analyzes the effects of forest fires that are several years apart in a small geographical area We find that repeated forest fires cause house prices to decrease for houses located near the fires We test and reject the hypothesis that the house price reduction from the first fire is equal to the house price reduction from the second fire The first fire reduces house prices by about 10%, while the second fire reduces house prices by nearly 23%, a statistically significant difference
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the incentive effects of subsidies and contingent wildfire insurance contracts for private investment in wildfire risk mitigation in western states, and showed that contingent insurance contracts strengthen incentives for risk mitigation relative to pooled contracts and subsidies induce more risk mitigation effort by reducing margin private costs of mitigation.
Abstract: Contingent wildfire insurance and fuel management cost-sharing programs are becoming more prevalent in western states. This paper develops a model to examine the incentive effects of these two mechanisms for private investment in wildfire risk mitigation. The model shows that contingent insurance contracts strengthen incentives for risk mitigation relative to pooled contracts and subsidies induce more risk mitigation effort by reducing margin private costs of mitigation. With pooled insurance contracts, individuals in low-risk areas subsidize the premiums of individuals living in high-risk areas, inducing too much development in high-risk areas. Subsidies can improve incentives for risk mitigation, but they also may induce excessive development in high-risk areas. Our model shows that because high-risk property owners have weak incentives to mitigate their own private risk, cost-sharing programs can be utterly ineffective at worst or extremely costly at best for inducing even second-best fuel management incentives. In contrast, contingent insurance contracts have the capacity to improve incentives for private risk reduction, and also improve the cost effectiveness of subsidy programs. The effects of these two mechanisms on development in fire-prone areas is ambiguous, but the model provides insight into the conditions under which overdevelopment is reduced with the joint use of contingent insurance and subsidy programs.
3 citations
TL;DR: In this article , a zero-inflated negative binomial mixed models are adapted to this type of data because they can describe patterns that explain both number of fires and their non-occurrence and also provide useful prediction tools.
1 citations
References
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TL;DR: Intensive forestry practiced within subtropical forests resulted in the highest rates of forest change globally, and boreal forest loss due largely to fire and forestry was second to that in the tropics in absolute and proportional terms.
Abstract: Quantification of global forest change has been lacking despite the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services. In this study, Earth observation satellite data were used to map global forest loss (2.3 million square kilometers) and gain (0.8 million square kilometers) from 2000 to 2012 at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. The tropics were the only climate domain to exhibit a trend, with forest loss increasing by 2101 square kilometers per year. Brazil's well-documented reduction in deforestation was offset by increasing forest loss in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia, Angola, and elsewhere. Intensive forestry practiced within subtropical forests resulted in the highest rates of forest change globally. Boreal forest loss due largely to fire and forestry was second to that in the tropics in absolute and proportional terms. These results depict a globally consistent and locally relevant record of forest change.
7,890 citations
7,342 citations
Stockholm Environment Institute1, Stockholm University2, Australian National University3, University of Alaska Fairbanks4, Université catholique de Louvain5, University of East Anglia6, Wageningen University and Research Centre7, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences8, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research9, University of Oxford10, James Cook University11, Arizona State University12, Royal Institute of Technology13, University of Minnesota14, University of Vermont15, Stockholm International Water Institute16, California State University San Marcos17, Goddard Institute for Space Studies18, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation19, University of Arizona20, University of Copenhagen21, Max Planck Society22
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a new approach to global sustainability in which they define planetary boundaries within which they expect that humanity can operate safely. But the proposed concept of "planetary boundaries" lays the groundwork for shifting our approach to governance and management, away from the essentially sectoral analyses of limits to growth aimed at minimizing negative externalities, toward the estimation of the safe space for human development.
Abstract: Anthropogenic pressures on the Earth System have reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. We propose a new approach to global sustainability in which we define planetary boundaries within which we expect that humanity can operate safely. Transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental- to planetary-scale systems. We have identified nine planetary boundaries and, drawing upon current scientific understanding, we propose quantifications for seven of them. These seven are climate change (CO2 concentration in the atmosphere <350 ppm and/or a maximum change of +1 W m-2 in radiative forcing); ocean acidification (mean surface seawater saturation state with respect to aragonite ≥ 80% of pre-industrial levels); stratospheric ozone (<5% reduction in O3 concentration from pre-industrial level of 290 Dobson Units); biogeochemical nitrogen (N) cycle (limit industrial and agricultural fixation of N2 to 35 Tg N yr-1) and phosphorus (P) cycle (annual P inflow to oceans not to exceed 10 times the natural background weathering of P); global freshwater use (<4000 km3 yr-1 of consumptive use of runoff resources); land system change (<15% of the ice-free land surface under cropland); and the rate at which biological diversity is lost (annual rate of <10 extinctions per million species). The two additional planetary boundaries for which we have not yet been able to determine a boundary level are chemical pollution and atmospheric aerosol loading. We estimate that humanity has already transgressed three planetary boundaries: for climate change, rate of biodiversity loss, and changes to the global nitrogen cycle. Planetary boundaries are interdependent, because transgressing one may both shift the position of other boundaries or cause them to be transgressed. The social impacts of transgressing boundaries will be a function of the social-ecological resilience of the affected societies. Our proposed boundaries are rough, first estimates only, surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps. Filling these gaps will require major advancements in Earth System and resilience science. The proposed concept of "planetary boundaries" lays the groundwork for shifting our approach to governance and management, away from the essentially sectoral analyses of limits to growth aimed at minimizing negative externalities, toward the estimation of the safe space for human development. Planetary boundaries define, as it were, the boundaries of the "planetary playing field" for humanity if we want to be sure of avoiding major human-induced environmental change on a global scale.
4,771 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that large wildfire activity increased suddenly and markedly in the mid-1980s, with higher large-wildfire frequency, longer wildfire durations, and longer wildfire seasons.
Abstract: Western United States forest wildfire activity is widely thought to have increased in recent decades, yet neither the extent of recent changes nor the degree to which climate may be driving regional changes in wildfire has been systematically documented. Much of the public and scientific discussion of changes in western United States wildfire has focused instead on the effects of 19th- and 20th-century land-use history. We compiled a comprehensive database of large wildfires in western United States forests since 1970 and compared it with hydroclimatic and land-surface data. Here, we show that large wildfire activity increased suddenly and markedly in the mid-1980s, with higher large-wildfire frequency, longer wildfire durations, and longer wildfire seasons. The greatest increases occurred in mid-elevation, Northern Rockies forests, where land-use histories have relatively little effect on fire risks and are strongly associated with increased spring and summer temperatures and an earlier spring snowmelt.
4,701 citations
TL;DR: Scott as discussed by the authors describes how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed and why these schemes have failed, including the one described in this paper, See Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Abstract: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed James C. Scott. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
4,581 citations