The global wildland–urban interface

Abstract The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is where buildings and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle 1,2 . It is where human–environmental conflicts and risks can be concentrated, including the loss of houses and lives to wildfire, habitat loss and fragmentation and the spread of zoonotic diseases 3 . However, a global analysis of the WUI has been lacking. Here, we present a global map of the 2020 WUI at 10 m resolution using a globally consistent and validated approach based on remote sensing-derived datasets of building area 4 and wildland vegetation 5 . We show that the WUI is a global phenomenon, identify many previously undocumented WUI hotspots and highlight the wide range of population density,…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: 80NSSC21K0310
• NS
  Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
• NC
  Narodowym Centrum Nauki