Beidler James L, Baker Kirk R, Pouliot George, Sacks Jason D
Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, United States.
Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, United States.
ACS EST Air. 2024 Nov 27;1(12):1687-1695. doi: 10.1021/acsestair.4c00228. eCollection 2024 Dec 13.
Prescribed fire is applied across the United States as a fuel treatment to manage the impact of wildfires and restore ecosystems. While the recent application of prescribed fire has largely been confined to the southeastern US, the increase in catastrophic wildfires has accelerated the growth of prescribed fire more broadly. To effectively achieve wildfire risk reduction benefits, which includes reducing the amount of smoke emitted, the area treated by prescribed fire must come into contact with a subsequent wildfire. In this study, we applied timely and consistent geospatially resolved data sets of prescribed fires and wildfires to estimate the rate at which an area treated by prescribed fire encounters a subsequent wildfire. We summarize these encounter rates across time intervals, prescribed fire treatment area, and number of previous prescribed fires and by region. On all U.S. Forest Service lands across the Conterminous US (CONUS) 6.2% of prescribed fire treated area from 2003-2022 encountered a subsequent wildfire in 2004-2023. Encounter rates were highest in western US forests, which tend to be more impacted by wildfire than the eastern US, and lower in the eastern US. Encounter rates increased with treatment area in the southeastern US but were relatively flat in the northwest. For the CONUS, encounter rates increased with longer time intervals, associated with diminished potential for reducing wildfire severity, between prescribed fire and the subsequent wildfire area burned. Our results provide timely information on prescribed fire and wildfire interactions that can be leveraged to optimize analyses of the trade-offs between prescribed fire and wildfire.
在美国，规定火烧作为一种燃料处理方式被广泛应用，以管理野火的影响并恢复生态系统。虽然规定火烧最近的应用主要局限于美国东南部，但灾难性野火的增加更广泛地加速了规定火烧的发展。为了有效实现降低野火风险的益处，包括减少烟雾排放量，规定火烧处理的区域必须与随后发生的野火接触。在本研究中，我们应用了及时且一致的规定火烧和野火的地理空间解析数据集，以估计规定火烧处理区域遭遇随后野火的速率。我们按时间间隔、规定火烧处理面积、先前规定火烧的次数以及地区总结了这些遭遇率。在美国本土（CONUS）所有美国森林服务局的土地上，2003 - 2022年规定火烧处理区域中有6.2%在2004 - 2023年遭遇了随后的野火。遭遇率在美国西部森林中最高，那里往往比美国东部更容易受到野火影响，而在美国东部较低。在美国东南部，遭遇率随处理面积增加而上升，但在西北部相对平稳。对于美国本土，随着规定火烧与随后野火燃烧区域之间时间间隔变长，遭遇率上升，这与降低野火严重程度的潜力减小有关。我们的结果提供了关于规定火烧与野火相互作用的及时信息，可用于优化对规定火烧和野火之间权衡的分析。
