Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over California
Wildfire severity is a key indicator of both direct ecosystem impacts and indirect emissions impacts that affect air quality, climate, and public health far beyond the spatial footprint of the flames. Comprehensive, accurate inventories of severity and emissions are essential for assessing these imp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac80d0 |
| _version_ | 1797747408954720256 |
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| author | Qingqing Xu Anthony LeRoy Westerling Andrew Notohamiprodjo Christine Wiedinmyer Joshua J Picotte Sean A Parks Matthew D Hurteau Miriam E Marlier Crystal A Kolden Jonathan A Sam W Jonathan Baldwin Christiana Ade |
| author_facet | Qingqing Xu Anthony LeRoy Westerling Andrew Notohamiprodjo Christine Wiedinmyer Joshua J Picotte Sean A Parks Matthew D Hurteau Miriam E Marlier Crystal A Kolden Jonathan A Sam W Jonathan Baldwin Christiana Ade |
| author_sort | Qingqing Xu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Wildfire severity is a key indicator of both direct ecosystem impacts and indirect emissions impacts that affect air quality, climate, and public health far beyond the spatial footprint of the flames. Comprehensive, accurate inventories of severity and emissions are essential for assessing these impacts and setting appropriate fire management and health care preparedness strategies, as is the ability to project emissions for future wildfires. The frequency of large wildfires and the magnitude of their impacts have increased in recent decades, fueling concerns about decreased air quality. To improve the availability of accurate fire severity and emissions estimates, we developed the wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory (WBSE). WBSE is a retrospective spatial burn severity and emissions inventory at 30 m resolution for event-based assessment and 500 m resolution for daily emissions calculation. We applied the WBSE framework to calculate burn severity and emissions for historically observed large wildfires (>404 hectares (ha)) that burned during 1984–2020 in the state of California, U.S., a substantially more extended period than existing inventories. We assigned the day of burning and daily emissions for each fire during 2002–2020. The framework described here can also be applied to estimate severity for smaller wildfires and can also be used to estimate emissions for fires simulated in California for future climate and land-use scenarios. The WBSE framework implemented in R and Google Earth Engine can provide quick estimates once a desired fire perimeter is available. The framework developed here could also easily be applied to other regions with user-modified vegetation, fuel data, and emission factors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:50:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a9d7d8e0e27c46cba8a54c7c5547eddb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:50:07Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-a9d7d8e0e27c46cba8a54c7c5547eddb2023-08-09T15:14:27ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117808500810.1088/1748-9326/ac80d0Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over CaliforniaQingqing Xu0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9532-8815Anthony LeRoy Westerling1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4573-0595Andrew Notohamiprodjo2Christine Wiedinmyer3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9738-6592Joshua J Picotte4Sean A Parks5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2982-5255Matthew D Hurteau6Miriam E Marlier7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9333-8411Crystal A Kolden8Jonathan A Sam9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7208-6224W Jonathan Baldwin10https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5470-6306Christiana Ade11Sierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced , 5200 N. Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95340, United States of AmericaSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced , 5200 N. Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95340, United States of AmericaSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced , 5200 N. Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95340, United States of America; Spatial Informatics Group , 2529 Yolanda Ct., Pleasanton, CA 94566, United States of AmericaCooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder , Boulder, CO 80309, United States of AmericaASRC Federal Data Solutions , 7000 Muirkirk Meadows Drive Suite #100, Beltsville, MD, 20705, United States of AmericaAldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service , 790 East Beckwith Ave., Missoula, MT 59801, United States of AmericaDepartment of Biology, University of New Mexico , Albuquerque, NM 87131, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles , Los Angeles, CA, United States of AmericaSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced , 5200 N. Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95340, United States of AmericaSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced , 5200 N. Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95340, United States of AmericaSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced , 5200 N. Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95340, United States of AmericaSierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced , 5200 N. Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95340, United States of AmericaWildfire severity is a key indicator of both direct ecosystem impacts and indirect emissions impacts that affect air quality, climate, and public health far beyond the spatial footprint of the flames. Comprehensive, accurate inventories of severity and emissions are essential for assessing these impacts and setting appropriate fire management and health care preparedness strategies, as is the ability to project emissions for future wildfires. The frequency of large wildfires and the magnitude of their impacts have increased in recent decades, fueling concerns about decreased air quality. To improve the availability of accurate fire severity and emissions estimates, we developed the wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory (WBSE). WBSE is a retrospective spatial burn severity and emissions inventory at 30 m resolution for event-based assessment and 500 m resolution for daily emissions calculation. We applied the WBSE framework to calculate burn severity and emissions for historically observed large wildfires (>404 hectares (ha)) that burned during 1984–2020 in the state of California, U.S., a substantially more extended period than existing inventories. We assigned the day of burning and daily emissions for each fire during 2002–2020. The framework described here can also be applied to estimate severity for smaller wildfires and can also be used to estimate emissions for fires simulated in California for future climate and land-use scenarios. The WBSE framework implemented in R and Google Earth Engine can provide quick estimates once a desired fire perimeter is available. The framework developed here could also easily be applied to other regions with user-modified vegetation, fuel data, and emission factors.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac80d0burn severityemission inventorydaily progression estimatesGoogle Earth Engine |
| spellingShingle | Qingqing Xu Anthony LeRoy Westerling Andrew Notohamiprodjo Christine Wiedinmyer Joshua J Picotte Sean A Parks Matthew D Hurteau Miriam E Marlier Crystal A Kolden Jonathan A Sam W Jonathan Baldwin Christiana Ade Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over California Environmental Research Letters burn severity emission inventory daily progression estimates Google Earth Engine |
| title | Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over California |
| title_full | Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over California |
| title_fullStr | Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over California |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over California |
| title_short | Wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory: an example implementation over California |
| title_sort | wildfire burn severity and emissions inventory an example implementation over california |
| topic | burn severity emission inventory daily progression estimates Google Earth Engine |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac80d0 |
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