Wildfire risk, post-fire debris flows, and transportation infrastructure vulnerability

Chester, Mikhail; Underwood, B. Shane

doi:10.1080/23789689.2020.1737785

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…We note that while immediate impacts of res on human lives and infrastructure are tremendous, indirect and derivative re impacts on social and ecological resources can be even more immense, triggering a range of cascading impacts [40][41][42] . Examples include re impacts on municipal water supplies 43,44 , lifethreatening post-re debris ow 45 , health implications of re smoke 46,47 and disruption of supply chain 48 , among others.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human and infrastructure exposure to large wildfires in the United States

ModaresiRad

Abatzoglou

Kreitler

et al. 2022

Preprint

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An increasing number of wildfire disasters occurred in recent years in the U.S. Here, we demonstrate that cumulative primary human exposure – population residing within large wildfires’ perimeters – was 594,850 people from 2000-2019 across the Contiguous U.S. (CONUS), 82% of which occurred in the Western U.S. Primary population exposure increased by 125% in CONUS in the past two decades, noting large uncertainty ranges. We show that population dynamics from 2000-2019 alone accounted for 24% of the observed increase rate in human exposure, whereas increased wildfire extent drove a majority of the observed trends. Additionally, we document widespread exposure of roads (412,155 km) and transmission powerlines (14,835 km) to large wildfires in CONUS, with an increased rate of 58% and 70% from 2000-2019, respectively. Our findings highlight the benefits of mitigation and adaptation efforts to help societies cope with wildfires.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human and infrastructure exposure to large wildfires in the United States

ModaresiRad

Abatzoglou

Kreitler

et al. 2022

Preprint

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show abstract

“…as link capacity (Li and Ozbay 2012) or traffic delay when disruption occurs (Dowds et al 2017). But traffic data, while a useful measure of how intensively a roadway is used, does not capture dynamics related to how important a link is in the overall network (Dowds et al 2017, Yang et al 2018, Fraser et al 2020. Nor is traffic data uniformly available for remote roads that may be more at risk to post-fire debris flows.…”

Section: Roadway Criticality and Vulnerability Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability of California roadways to post-wildfire debris flows

Chester

2023

Environ. Res.: Infrastruct. Sustain.

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Post-wildfire debris flows represent a significant hazard for transportation infrastructure. The location and intensity of post-fire debris movements are difficult to predict, and threats can persist for several years until the watershed is restored to pre-fire conditions. This situation might worsen as climate change forecasts predict increasing numbers of wildfire burned areas and extreme precipitation intensity. New insights are needed to improve understanding of how roadways are vulnerable to post-fire flows and how to prioritize protective efforts. Using California as a case study, the vulnerability of transportation infrastructure to post-fire debris flow was assessed considering geologic conditions, vegetation conditions, precipitation, fire risk, and roadway importance under current and future climate scenarios. The results showed significant but uneven statewide increases in the number of vulnerable roadways from the present to future emission scenarios. Under current climate conditions, 0.97% of roadways are highly vulnerable. In the future, the ratio of vulnerable roadways is expected to increase 1.9-2.3 times in the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 emission scenarios and 3.5-4.2 times in the RCP 8.5 emission scenarios. The threat of post-fire debris flow varies across the state, as precipitation changes are uneven. The vulnerability assessment is positioned to 1) identify, reinforce, and fortify highly vulnerable roadways, 2) prioritize watershed fire mitigation, and 3) guide future infrastructure site selection.

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“…• Increased rainfall • Depending on the historical design conditions and the direction of projections forecasts, roadway drainage infrastructure may be designed appropriately in some regions, overdesigned in some, and under-designed in others 2020 [47] Transportation systems The 37 relevant documents were further categorized in 6 sub-categories based on research themes, with some of the most important observations being that a transportation system might be vulnerable to certain events, but resilient to others, making it necessary to evaluate the vulnerability of each threat or danger separately [16], or that transportation infrastructure is vulnerable to postfire flooding, which can be multiple times larger than the level of flow that the original engineer considered when designing the infrastructure [22]. Moreover, the issue of conflicting adaptation strategies, which should be identified and cautiously examined before implementation [42] was raised, and in the same context, adaptation strategies such as improved warning and preparedness systems, more frequent and targeted maintenance activities, hardening infrastructure, relocating infrastructure to less vulnerable areas, and expanding system redundancy are being considered [40].…”

Section: Topic Analysis Using Content Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Current research trends into the effect of climate change on civil engineering infrastructures: A bibliometric review

Kalogeraki

Antoniou

2022

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

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Climate change and the construction industry are inextricably linked. On the one hand, the construction industry is responsible for the highest level of carbon emissions by sector, but, on the other hand, it is considered as the most vulnerable to extreme weather conditions. In this paper, a bibliometric review is carried out for shedding light on the manner with which climate change affects the construction industry and the existing and future infrastructures. Using VOSviewer and the Scopus database, relevant literature is retrieved and analyzed using keyword searches including ‘construction’, ‘infrastructure’ and ‘climate change impact.’ The bibliometric analysis determined how researchers have investigated different climate change factors affecting each distinct construction sector and infrastructure type. The analysis focused on publication year, country-institute, journal, author, and research themes. The detected research themes provide future researchers with potential research directions. A gap in the research regarding the investigation into the climate change effects on transportation infrastructure was determined. Therefore, a content analysis of the relevant papers under the theme ‘transportation infrastructures’ is conveyed. Ultimately, the main research trends and potential research directions for the protection of civil engineering infrastructures against climate change effects are discussed aiming to provide guidance to future research.

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Wildfire risk, post-fire debris flows, and transportation infrastructure vulnerability

Cited by 21 publications

References 36 publications

Human and infrastructure exposure to large wildfires in the United States

Human and infrastructure exposure to large wildfires in the United States

Vulnerability of California roadways to post-wildfire debris flows

Current research trends into the effect of climate change on civil engineering infrastructures: A bibliometric review

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