Wildfire Hazards, Risks, and Disasters

1st Edition - October 13, 2014
Editors: Douglas Paton, John F. Shroder
Language: English
Paperback ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 1 0 3 2 2 - 7
Hardback ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 4 1 0 4 3 4 - 1
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 4 0 9 6 0 1 - 1

More than 90% of wildfires are caused by human activity, but other causes include lighting, drought, wind and changing weather conditions, underground coal fires, and even vo… Read more

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More than 90% of wildfires are caused by human activity, but other causes include lighting, drought, wind and changing weather conditions, underground coal fires, and even volcanic activity. Wildfire Hazards, Risks, and Disasters, one of nine volumes in the Elsevier Hazards and Disasters series, provides a close and detailed examination of wildfires and measures for more thorough and accurate monitoring, prediction, preparedness, and prevention. It takes a geo-scientific and environmental approach to the topic while also discussing the impacts of human-induced causes such as deforestation, debris burning and arson—underscoring the multi-disciplinary nature of the topic. It presents several international case studies that discuss the historical, social, cultural and ecological aspects of wildfire risk management in countries with a long history of dealing with this hazard (e.g., USA, Australia) and in countries (e.g., Taiwan) where wildfire hazards represent a new and growing threat to the social and ecological landscape.

Editorial Foreword
Chapter 1. Wildfires: International Perspectives on Their Social—Ecological Implications
- 1.1. Introduction
- 1.2. Changes in the Wildfire Hazard Scape
- 1.3. The Americas
- 1.4. Europe
- 1.5. Australasia
- 1.6. India
- 1.7. Russia
- 1.8. Wildfire Danger Rating and Warnings
- 1.9. Restoration
- 1.10. Developing a Social–Ecological Perspective
Chapter 2. Social Science Findings in the United States
- 2.1. Introduction
- 2.2. Review of Relevant Research Findings
- 2.3. Prefire Social Dynamics
- 2.4. During and Postfire Social Dynamics
- 2.5. Geographic and Sociodemographic Differences
- 2.6. Concluding Remarks
Chapter 3. Wildfire: A Canadian Perspective
- 3.1. Introduction
- 3.2. Wildfire Causes and Impacts
- 3.3. Wildfire Management
- 3.4. Ecological Restoration and Community Recovery
- 3.5. Conclusions
Chapter 4. Current Wildfire Risk Status and Forecast in Chile: Progress and Future Challenges
- 4.1. Introduction
- 4.2. Initial References to Fire
- 4.3. Wildfire Risk Index Designed for Chile
- 4.4. Conclusion
Chapter 5. Forest Fires in Europe: Facts and Challenges
- 5.1. Introduction
- 5.2. Fire History: The Evolution of Fire Use in Europe through Prehistory and History
- 5.3. Forest Fire Current Situation
- 5.4. From Forest Fire Suppression toward Forest Fire Risk Management
- 5.5. The Role of European Union Policies in Forest Fire Management
- 5.6. Conclusion
Chapter 6. Wildfires: An Australian Perspective
- 6.1. Introduction: Extent and Impact of Australian Wildfires
- 6.2. Australia's Wildfire Management
- 6.3. Framework: Legislation and Key Institutions
- 6.4. Building Capacity and Capability: Inquiries, Research, Education, and Training
- 6.5. Conclusion: Ways Forward
Chapter 7. Fostering Community Participation to Wildfire: Experiences from Indonesia
- 7.1. Introduction
- 7.2. Wildfire and Wildfire Management
- 7.3. Community Participation and Wildfire in South Sumatra and East Kalimantan
- 7.4. Community Participation in Wildfire Management
Chapter 8. Discourse on Taiwanese Forest Fires
- 8.1. Introduction
- 8.2. Conclusion
Chapter 9. Wildfires in India: Tools and Hazards
- 9.1. Introduction
- 9.2. Fire History and Regimes in India
- 9.3. Fire and Ecology
- 9.4. Fire as Tool
- 9.5. Fire as a Hazard
- 9.6. Outlook
Chapter 10. System of Wildfires Monitoring in Russia
- 10.1. Introduction
- 10.2. Natural Conditions and Forests in Russia
- 10.3. Fire History and Current Statistics
- 10.4. Federal Institutions of Wildfire Preventing and Fighting
- 10.5. Territory Zoning according to the Type of Fire Monitoring
- 10.6. Natural Fire Danger and Anthropogenic Impact
Chapter 11. Wildland Fire Danger Rating and Early Warning Systems
- 11.1. Introduction
- 11.2. Fire Danger Rating Systems
- 11.3. Fire Early Warning Systems
- 11.4. Forecasting Fire Danger for Early Warning
- 11.5. Fire Danger and Early Warning Applications
- 11.6. Future Fire Danger and Early Warning
Chapter 12. Postfire Ecosystem Restoration
- 12.1. Introduction
- 12.2. Do We Need to Manage Ecosystem Recovery after Wildfires?
- 12.3. The Case of Megafires
- 12.4. A Mediterranean-Basin Approach
- 12.5. Conclusion
Chapter 13. Ensuring That We Can See the Wood and the Trees: Growing the Capacity for Ecological wildfire Risk Management
- 13.1. Introduction
- 13.2. Causes and Consequences
- 13.3. Lessons
- 13.4. Pathways Forward
Index

Douglas Paton

Douglas Paton is Professor in the School of Psychology and Clinical Sciences at Charles Darwin University in Australia as of November 2016; previously he was at the University of Tasmania. He is a Technical Advisor on Risk Communication to the World Health Organisation, a member of the Risk Interpretation sub-committee of IRDR (UN-ISDR), and an advisor to the Australian Red Cross on community resilience. His work informs policy and practice for natural and health (pandemic) hazards through these roles. He is also the editor of Wildfire Hazards, Risks, and Disasters, part of the Elsevier Hazards, Risks, and Disasters series, edited by James Schroeder.

Affiliations and expertise

University of Tasmania, Australia

John F. Shroder

Dr. John (Jack) F. Shroder received his bachelor’s degree in geology from Union College in 1961; his masters in geology from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 1963, and his Ph.D. in geology at the University of Utah in 1967. He has been actively pursuing research on landforms and natural resources in the high mountain environments of the Rocky Mountains, the Afghanistan Hindu Kush, and the Karakoram Himalaya of Pakistan for over a half century. His teaching specialties have been primarily geomorphology, but also physical and historical geology and several other courses at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he was the founding professor of the Geology major. While there he was instrumental in founding the Center for Afghanistan Studies in 1972, and he was the lead geologist for the Bethsaida Archaeological Project in Israel in the 1990s. He taught geology as an NSF-, USAID, and Fulbright-sponsored professor at Kabul University in 1977-78, as well as a Fulbright award to Peshawar University in 1983-84. He has some 63 written or edited books to his credit and more than 200 professional papers, with emphases on landslides, glaciers, flooding, and mineral resources in Afghanistan. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received Distinguished Career awards from both the Mountain and the Geomorphology Specialty Groups of the Association of American Geographers. In the recent decade as an Emeritus Professor, he served as a Trustee of the Geological Society of America Foundation where he set up a research scholarship, the Shroder Mass Movement award for masters and doctoral candidates. For the past two decades, he has been the Editor-in-Chief for the Developments in Earth Surface Processes book series of Elsevier Publishing, as well as the 10-volumes of the Treatise on Geomorphology, and the Hazards, Risks, and Disasters book series, both in second editions. Recently, Dr. Shroder was ranked among the top 2 percent of researchers worldwide by the October study conducted by Stanford University.

Affiliations and expertise

Senior Research Scholar, Center for Afghanistan Studies, Emeritus Professor of Geography and Geology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA

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