Wildland Fires and Air Pollution
Wildland Fires and Air Pollution

Author: Andrzej Bytnerowicz

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2008-10-06

Total Pages: 687

ISBN-13: 0080560490

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The interaction between smoke and air pollution creates a public health challenge. Fuels treatments proposed for National Forests are intended to reduce fuel accumulations and wildfire frequency and severity, as well as to protect property located in the wild land-urban interface. However, prescribed fires produce gases and aerosols that have instantaneous and long-term effects on air quality. If fuels treatment are not conducted, however, then wild land fires become more severe and frequent causing worse public health and wellfare effects. A better understanding of air pollution and smoke interactions is needed in order to protect the public health and allow for socially and ecologically acceptable use of fire as a management tool. Wildland Fires and Air Pollution offers such an understanding and examines innovative wide-scale monitoring efforts (field and remotely sensed), and development of models predicting spatial and temporal distribution of air pollution and smoke resulting from forests fires and other sources. Collaborative effort of an international team of scientists High quality of invited chapters Full colour

Wildland Fires and Air Pollution
Wildland Fires and Air Pollution

Author: Andrzej Bytnerowicz

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 688

ISBN-13: 0080556094

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Wildland fires are one of the most devastating and terrifying forces of nature. While their effects are mostly destructive they also help with regeneration of forests and other ecosystems. Low-intensity fires clear accumulating biomass reducing risk of catastrophic crown fires and can be used as an effective management tool. This book presents current understanding of wildland fires and air quality as well as their effects on human health, forests and other ecosystems. in the first section of the book the basics of wildland fires and resulting emissions are presented from the perspective of changing global climate, air quality impairment and effects on environmental and human health and security. in the second section, effects of wildland fires on air quality, visibility and human health in various regions of the Earth are discussed. The third section of the book deals with complex issues of the ecological impacts of fires and air pollution in forests and chaparral in North America. The fourth section discusses various management issues facing land and fire managers which are related to wildfires, use of prescribed fires, and air quality. This section also presents various modeling systems used for describing fire dangers and behavior as well as smoke and air pollution predictions applied in the risk assessment analysis. The book concludes with a series of expert recommendations for wildland fire and atmospheric research.

Wildland Fire in Ecosystems
Wildland Fire in Ecosystems

Author: David V. Sandberg

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 88

ISBN-13:

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This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on air quality can assist land, fire, and air resource managers with fire and smoke planning, and their efforts to explain to others the science behind fire-related program policies and practices to improve air quality. Chapter topics include air quality regulations and fire; characterization of emissions from fire; the transport, dispersion, and modeling of fire emissions; atmospheric and plume chemistry; air quality impacts of fire; social consequences of air quality impacts; and recommendations for future research.

Wildland Fire Smoke in the United States
Wildland Fire Smoke in the United States

Author: David L. Peterson

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-08-11

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 3030870456

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This open access book synthesizes current information on wildland fire smoke in the United States, providing a scientific foundation for addressing the production of smoke from wildland fires. This will be increasingly critical as smoke exposure and degraded air quality are expected to increase in extent and severity in a warmer climate. Accurate smoke information is a foundation for helping individuals and communities to effectively mitigate potential smoke impacts from wildfires and prescribed fires. The book documents our current understanding of smoke science for (1) primary physical, chemical, and biological issues related to wildfire and prescribed fire, (2) key social issues, including human health and economic impacts, and (3) current and anticipated management and regulatory issues. Each chapter provides a summary of priorities for future research that provide a roadmap for developing scientific information that can improve smoke and fire management over the next decade.

Wildland Fire in Ecosystems
Wildland Fire in Ecosystems

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 88

ISBN-13:

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This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on air quality can assist land, fire, and air resource managers with fire and smoke planning, and their efforts to explain to others the science behind fire-related program policies and practices to improve air quality. Chapter topics include air quality regulations and fire; characterization of emissions from fire; the transport, dispersion, and modeling of fire emissions; atmospheric and plume chemistry; air quality impacts of fire; social consequences of air quality impacts; and recommendations for future research.

Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness
Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 0309499909

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California and other wildfire-prone western states have experienced a substantial increase in the number and intensity of wildfires in recent years. Wildlands and climate experts expect these trends to continue and quite likely to worsen in coming years. Wildfires and other disasters can be particularly devastating for vulnerable communities. Members of these communities tend to experience worse health outcomes from disasters, have fewer resources for responding and rebuilding, and receive less assistance from state, local, and federal agencies. Because burning wood releases particulate matter and other toxicants, the health effects of wildfires extend well beyond burns. In addition, deposition of toxicants in soil and water can result in chronic as well as acute exposures. On June 4-5, 2019, four different entities within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis. The workshop explored the population health, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and health equity consequences of increasingly strong and numerous wildfires, particularly in California. This publication is a summary of the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Climate Change, Air Pollution and Global Challenges
Climate Change, Air Pollution and Global Challenges

Author: Mikhail Sofiev

Publisher: Elsevier Inc. Chapters

Published: 2013-11-19

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13: 0128055731

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The chapter gives a short outlook of wildland fires and their influence on atmospheric composition, air quality and climate. Fires are among the most powerful sources of atmospheric tracers and also means of changing the ecosystems themselves. Present pattern of the biomass burning is strongly affected by anthropogenic activities, both via accidental and deliberate ignitions of the fires (about 90% fires are started by humans) and via various fire-fighting and prevention measures. The role of urban–rural interface territories is particularly high in this regard. The fire specifics and impact vary in the different parts of the globe. In forested regions, the bulk of consumed biomass can be attributed to a comparatively small number of major episodes, whereas in arid regions, individual fires are smaller but more numerous. Remote sensing is the primary way of fire monitoring. Three types of products—inventories of burnt areas, count of active fires and estimates of release of fire radiative energy—are available from several satellite instruments. Altogether, they cover the whole globe and span over several decades. Based on this information, several inventories of consumed biomass and atmospheric emissions have been compiled. Their comparison shows qualitative similarity of the products but the differences are substantial. Understanding the reasons for these differences and development of consensus-based methodologies is among the main challenges for the near future.

Earth Observation of Wildland Fires in Mediterranean Ecosystems
Earth Observation of Wildland Fires in Mediterranean Ecosystems

Author: Emilio Chuvieco

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-09-25

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 3642017541

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Wildland fires are becoming one of the most critical environmental factors affecting a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. In Mediterranean ecosystems (including also South-Africa, California, parts of Chile and Australia), wildland fires are recurrent phenomena every summer, following the seasonal drought. As a result of changes in traditional land use practices, and the impact of recent climate warming, fires have more negative impacts in the last years, threatening lives, socio-economic and ecological values. The book describes the ecological context of fires in the Mediterranean ecosystems, and provides methods to observe fire danger conditions and fire impacts using Earth Observation and Geographic Information System technologies.