Global expansion of wildland-urban interface intensifies human exposure to wildfire risk in the 21st century

Abstract

Rapidly increasing human-nature interactions exacerbate the risk of exposure to wildfires for human society. The wildland-urban interface (WUI) represents the nexus of human-nature interactions, where the risk of exposure to natural hazards such as wildfire is most pronounced. However, quantifying long-term global WUI change and the corresponding driving factors at fine resolution remain challenging. Here, we mapped and analyzed the global WUI at 30-meter resolution in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Our analysis revealed that the global WUI expanded by 35.6% since 2000, reaching 1.93 million square kilometer in 2020. Notably, 85% of this growth occurred between 2010 and 2020. The increase in WUI was primarily driven by the unprecedented expansion of global urbanization, contributing an additional 589,914 square kilometer of WUI. In addition, the number of small fires occurring in WUI areas has increased substantially since 2010. These findings underscore the rising wildfire risk to human society and highlight the urgency of implementing tailored fire management strategies in WUI areas.