Living with fire and the need for diversity

C. R. Stoof*, N. Kettridge

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debatepeer-review

36 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The 2018–2021 wildfire seasons were a glimpse of the future: deadly damaging fires in Mediterranean regions and high fire activity outside the typical fire season, also in temperate and boreal areas. This challenge cannot be solved with the traditional mono-disciplinary approach of fire suppression. There is a critical need to change fire management from fire resistance to landscape resilience: Living with fire. Climate change thereby creates an urgency for understanding the integrated drivers of fire impacts and risks, and for designing creative and effective risk reduction, management and communication strategies. We argue that achieving this integrated fire management requires inter- and transdisciplinary research based on four axes of diversity: combining cross-geography, cross-risk, and cross-sector approaches while embracing social diversity. This requires a new way of training our future experts, a broader way of defining scientific excellence, and stimulation of opportunities for people from various disciplines and sectors to meet and learn.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2021EF002528
Number of pages6
JournalEarth's Future
Volume10
Issue number4
Early online date9 Mar 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The ideas presented here have been developed through numerous conversation amongst the wildfire community. We would notably wish to thank Eduard Plana Bach, Núria Prat‐Guitart, Peter Moore, Alexander Held, Rob Gazzard, Lisa Langer, Guillermo Rein, Lucian Deaton, Peter Vermeulen and all contributors to the PyroLife network. C.R.S. and N.K. are the creators of the PyroLife Innovative Training Network, that trains 15 early stage researchers across Europe in integrated fire management. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement No. 860787. Natasha de Sena was commissioned to design Figure 1 . We thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on an earlier version of this work.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Earth's Future published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union.

Keywords

  • diversity
  • education
  • fire
  • integrated fire management
  • training
  • wildfire

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science(all)
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Living with fire and the need for diversity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this