Rare and highly destructive wildfires drive human migration in the U.S.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 6631, 2024 Aug 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39103334
ABSTRACT
The scale of wildfire impacts to the built environment is growing and will likely continue under rising average global temperatures. We investigate whether and at what destruction threshold wildfires have influenced human mobility patterns by examining the migration effects of the most destructive wildfires in the contiguous U.S. between 1999 and 2020. We find that only the most extreme wildfires (258+ structures destroyed) influenced migration patterns. In contrast, the majority of wildfires examined were less destructive and did not cause significant changes to out- or in-migration. These findings suggest that, for the past two decades, the influence of wildfire on population mobility was rare and operated primarily through destruction of the built environment.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Wildfires
/
Human Migration
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos
Country of publication:
Reino Unido