Citation

Synolakis CE, Karagiannis GM. PNAS Nexus 2024; 3(5): pgae151.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, National Academy of Sciences (USA), Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae151

PMID

38715728

PMCID

PMC11075647

Abstract

The August 8, 2023R Lahaina fire refocused attention on wildfires, public alerts, and emergency management. Wildfire risk is on the rise, precipitated through a combination of climate change, increased development in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), decades of unmitigated biomass accumulation in forests, and a long history of emphasis on fire suppression over hazard mitigation. Stemming the tide of wildfire death and destruction will involve bringing together diverse scientific disciplines into policy. Renewed emphasis is needed on emergency alerts and community evacuations. Land management strategies need to account for the impact of climate change and hazard mitigation on forest ecosystems. Here, we propose a long-term strategy consisting of integrating wildfire risk management in wider-scope forest land management policies and strategies, and we discuss new technologies and possible scientific breakthroughs.

Language: en

Keywords

climate adaptation; emergency management; evacuation modeling; satellite fire observations; wildland fire risk