Climate change is driving an increase in catastrophic wildfires; consumers see, smell, and taste the effects in their water. Water utilities must prepare for worse times ahead.
wildfire
Improved Algorithms Help Scientists Monitor Wildfires from Space
Wildfires release pollutants that harm human health. Quality satellite monitoring can help track these pollutants and predict where they may become health hazards.
Amazon Forests Are Turning into Savannas
Floodplain forests have low resilience to repeated exposure to wildfires. As climate change increases the instances of fires, forests may transform to less productive grassland ecosystems.
Los Incendios forestales podrían exacerbar el asma en el oeste de los Estados Unidos
Un nuevo estudio predice que para la década de 2050, el humo de los incendios forestales hará que la región gaste $850 millones más cada año para tratar el asma.
The Rain Forest Can Recover After Fire, but It’s Not the Same
New research finds that temperatures rise in the Amazon rain forest after a fire, even in areas that are not converted to agricultural land or pastures.
Zooming In on Small Fires in Africa
By analyzing high-resolution satellite images, researchers found that fires burning in Africa were undercounted by as much as 80%.
Fire as Medicine: Learning from Native American Fire Stewardship
For centuries, Indigenous peoples have worked to live in harmony with fire. Can integrating such cultural practices into contemporary wildfire management help prevent catastrophic wildfires?
Mass Bird Die-Off Linked to Wildfires and Toxic Gases
Using observations from crowdsourced science and weather location data, researchers concluded that wildfires caused a mass die-off of birds in the western and central United States in 2020.
Widespread Wildfire as a Proxy for Resource Strain
Researchers have found a strong correlation between the number of days with widespread, synchronous fire danger and resource allocation across the western United States.
Uncovering Patterns in California’s Blazing Wildfires
A study of trends in wildfire occurrence over the past 30 years shows that environmental, climatic, and human-related factors can point out regions with high fire probabilities.