دانلود رایگان مقاله مروری بر آنتروپوسین و آتش سوزی و جامعه

Abstract

Across the globe wildfires are increasing in frequency and magnitude under a warming climate, impacting natural resources, infrastructure, and millions of people worldwide every year. At the same time, human encroachment into fire-prone areas has increased the potential for ignition, as well as risks and damages to human communities. In an era of intensifying human activities on Earth – the “Anthropocene” – societal interactions with post-fire landscapes are becoming normal. Independent theories derived from individual disciplines no longer apply in cases where human interactions are intense. A holistic approach that accounts for interactions between natural and human systems is necessary to understand the altered dynamics of post-fire landscapes. Focusing on the intersection of fire, water, and society, this review explores an integrative research framework to couple post-fire fluvial and human processes. We overview the trends in wildfires and growing impacts on humans, how fluvial processes and systems are altered by wildfires, and the potential hazards for human settlements. This review is a basis for integrating societal concerns, such as vulnerability, economic impacts, and management responses. We then link disciplinary questions into broad interdisciplinary research through an integrative framework. The 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire (Colorado, USA) provides an illustrative case with intense human interactions, both during and after the fire, to formulate critical questions within the integrative framework. Utilizing emergent integrative conceptual frameworks and tools will assist scholars in meeting the challenges and opportunities for broad collaboration, which are necessary to understand and confront wildfires characteristic of the “Anthropocene”.

6. Outstanding needs, challenges, and opportunities

An urgent need exists to understand the interactions and feedbacks among wildfire, water processes, and society. First, we need to develop predictive understanding of the coupled hydrological, geomorphic and ecological responses within burned landscapes, using interdisciplinary knowledge amassed over the past several decades. Such information is vital for understanding the fundamental processes, functions, and feedback relationships altered by fire, and ultimately for maintaining healthy ecosystem services for human communities in the face of change. Second, in an era of intense human interaction with landscapes, we need to fully integrate human activities into these coupled responses. This approach entails better understanding of the historical context of human impacts, policies, and management practices under which landscapes have evolved, as well as ongoing wildfire mitigation. Third, in light of critical concerns for human safety and welfare in fire-prone areas, we need to develop policies and strategies for risk mitigation and adaptation (i.e., bottom arc Fig. 5; Chapin et al., 2006). Recognizing that disturbance is itself an agent of recovery, strategies should place priority on enhancing capacity for burned landscapes to recover (Beschta et al., 2004), rather than on changing the trajectory of recovery.