Wildfires are an escalating crisis on a global scale - both affected by and affecting climate change. According to a UNEP report, the global increase of extreme fires will continue to escalate - projected to be up 14% by 2030 and 30% by the end of 2050. Megafires occur on every continent except Antarctica, and year-over-year are impacting areas previously unaffected by fires - including rainforests, permafrost, and peatland swamps. With an estimated 1.5M sq miles of Earth's land affected by fire each year, the growing intensity of wildfires increases risk to loss of life and loss of property, particularly at a region known as the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) -  the zone of transition between wilderness and land developed by human activity.

This project seeks to hone in on the WUI region to better understand risks of how wildfire hazard is distributed across income levels globally. By leveraging satellite data from pre, active, and post-fire conditions focused on the WUI region, we can start to understand the growing negative impact on property and communities due to megafires. Correlation of this data with income and home valuation maps, there is the opportunity to understand if there is social disparity in the WUI region. The student teams will look at data from a variety of large fires over the past 5 years in different global regions most impacted by wildfire activity - Western US, Australia, Indonesia, Bolivia, Greece - to better understand this problem.

1. Is there a social equity disparity linked to wildfire risk at the WUI region? 

2. Are lower income families at a higher risk of property and loss of life due to the growing intensity of wildfires based on living conditions?

3. Does this trend track globally?

Problem Statements