Have you looked at the USA Current Wildfires lately? Activity is really starting to pick-up along the West Coast, putting people and property at risk. Studies of the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) have shown that as development continues to expand out into previous undeveloped areas, more homes are exposed to wildfire.
Coupled with climate change and increasing fire season length, annual area burned, and annual area burned with high severity, wildfires are posing a greater threat to communities across the United States. Fire is a natural process in many ecosystems that we will never eliminate, but there are things we can do to reduce the risks to homes and communities.
GIS and spatial analysis are a powerful tool to be able to understand and plan for these risks. Fortunately there are a series of 15 new layers in ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World to help map and analyze risk from wildfires in your community.
For more information, see Improving the understanding of community wildfire risk.
