Reining Sebastian, Wussow Moritz, Zanocco Chad, Neumann Dirk
Climate Action Research Lab (CARL), Chair of Information Systems Research, University of Freiburg, 79098, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 7;16(1):463. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-55705-w.
Wildfires are having disproportionate impacts on U.S. households. Notably, in California, over half of wildfire-destroyed homes (54%) are in low-income areas. We investigate the relationship between social vulnerability and wildfire community preparedness using building permits from 16 counties in California with 2.9 million buildings (2013-2021) and the U.S. government's designation of disadvantaged communities (DACs), which classifies a census tract as a DAC if it meets a threshold for certain burdens, such as climate, environmental, and socio-economic. Homes located in DACs are 29% more likely to be destroyed by wildfires within 30 years, partly driven by a gap in roof renewals, one of several important home hardening actions. Homes in DACs have 28% fewer roof renewals than non-DACs and post-wildfire, non-DAC homes have more than twice the increase in renewals (+17%) compared to DAC homes (+7%). Our research offers policy insights for narrowing this equity gap in renewals for wildfire-prone areas. We recommend increasing financial support for roof renewals and targeted awareness campaigns for existing programs which are not sufficiently emphasized in wildfire strategies, particularly in DACs.
野火对美国家庭产生了不成比例的影响。值得注意的是，在加利福尼亚州，超过一半（54%）被野火摧毁的房屋位于低收入地区。我们利用加利福尼亚州16个县的建筑许可（2013 - 2021年，共290万栋建筑）以及美国政府对弱势社区（DACs）的指定来研究社会脆弱性与野火社区防备之间的关系。如果一个普查区满足某些负担的阈值，如气候、环境和社会经济方面的负担，美国政府就会将其归类为DAC。位于DAC的房屋在30年内被野火摧毁的可能性要高出29%，部分原因是屋顶翻新方面的差距，而屋顶翻新是几项重要的房屋加固措施之一。DAC中的房屋屋顶翻新次数比非DAC中的房屋少28%，而且野火过后，非DAC房屋的翻新增加幅度（+17%）是DAC房屋（+7%）的两倍多。我们的研究为缩小易发生野火地区在翻新方面的公平差距提供了政策见解。我们建议增加对屋顶翻新的财政支持，并针对野火应对策略中未得到充分重视的现有项目开展有针对性的宣传活动，特别是在DAC地区。
