U S Department of Commerce

Mathematical Modeling of Wildland-urban Interface Fires U S Department of Commerce

Publisher Marketing: Over the past few years, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires have become of much greater concern. The WUI includes people and property, and, therefore, the costs of damage in the built environment, especially when measured in terms of injury to people, death and property damage, are far higher than in wildland settings, National Interagency Fire Center (2006). The WUI has been found to be large and growing rapidly in the United States as population expands and housing development in wildland areas continues. People are building more houses in a wildland setting every year, Environmental Literacy Council (2007). For example, data from year 2000 show that about 36 % or 42 million homes in the U. S. are in the WUI and the numbers are growing rapidly, Radeloff et al (2005) and Gustafson et al (2005). Also, as the average temperature, both within the United States and globally, has increased, earlier snowmelts have taken place, extending the number of weeks every year that forests are exposed to high temperatures and dangerously dry conditions, Andrews et al. (2007). Increasingly hot and dry conditions in the United States have led, in turn, to more acres of wildland fuel consumed by wildfire with greater threat to the WUI, Andrews et al (2007), National Interagency Fire Center (2006).