Collaborative Research: Fire Risk and Ecological Intergrity in the Wildland Urban Interface of Colorado Front Range

在美国西部，资源管理者越来越关注将生态系统恢复到定居前的状态，同时减轻火灾对财产和资源价值的风险的目标。生态恢复和减轻火灾风险的双重管理目标并不总是相容的，特别是在自然火灾制度由大而严重的火灾组成的情况下。这一合作研究项目将探索横跨科罗拉多前线地区四个县的荒地-城市界面(WUI)中森林管理、土地利用变化、火灾风险和生态完整性之间的关系。调查人员将开发空间明确的基线研究，评估火灾排除和土地利用模式如何影响野火行为，以及火灾对整个WUI景观中的人和财产的空间风险程度。在这些基线评估的基础上，该研究将考虑土地利用和森林管理情景的哪种空间组合将显著降低火灾风险，同时保护异质荒地-城市交界处的生态完整性。这项工作整合了科罗拉多前线WUI的自然和人文层面的复原力和景观变化。通过该项目将产生科学和通信产品，其中许多产品应用于社会问题，即如何在一个容易发生火灾的不断扩大的WUI中维持人类和自然社区的弹性。预计产品将包括：(1)对科罗拉多前锋山脉WUI的历史火灾制度和森林-林结构的基线研究，(2)历史郊区发展模式及其对整个WUI野火风险程度和分布的影响研究，(3)偏离历史生态条件的分析和改进的野火风险地图，以及(4)在空间上明确评估关键的火灾缓解和森林恢复选项。

In the western U.S. resource managers are increasingly concerned with the objectives of restoring ecosystems to their pre-settlement conditions while also mitigating the risks of fires to property and resource values. The dual management goals of ecological restoration and fire-risk mitigation are not always compatible, especially where natural fire regimes consisted of large, severe fires. This collaborative research project will explore relationships among forest management, land-use change, fire risk, and ecological integrity in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) spanning four counties of the Colorado Front Range. The investigators will develop spatially explicit baseline studies that evaluate how fire exclusion and land-use patterns have affected wildfire behavior and the spatial extent of fire risk to people and property across the WUI landscape. Building upon these baseline assessments, the study will consider which spatial combination of land-use and forest-management scenarios would significantly reduce fire risk while also protecting ecological integrity across a heterogeneous wildland-urban interface. This work integrates natural and human dimensions of resilience and landscape change in the WUI of the Colorado Front Range.Scientific and communication products will be generated through this project, with many having application to societal questions of how resilient human and natural communities can be sustained in a fire-prone, ever-expanding WUI. Products are expected to include (1) baseline studies of historical fire regimes and forest-stand structures across the Colorado Front Range WUI, (2) studies of historical exurban development patterns and their effect on the degree and distribution of wildfire risk across the WUI, (3) analysis of departure from historical ecological conditions and an improved wildfire risk map, and (4) spatially explicit evaluation of key fire-mitigation and forest restoration options.