Wildfires and climate justice
Future wildfire events predicted to disproportionally impact socioeconomically vulnerable communities in North Carolina
Bibliographic Data
Wildfire events are becoming increasingly common across many areas of the United States, including North Carolina (NC). Wildfires can cause immediate damage to properties, and wildfire smoke conditions can harm the overall health of exposed communities. It is critical to identify communities at increased risk of wildfire events, particularly in areas with that have sociodemographic disparities and low socioeconomic status (SES) that may exacerbate incurred impacts of wildfire events. This study set out to: (1) characterize the distribution of wildfire risk across NC; (2) implement integrative cluster analyses to identify regions that contain communities with increased vulnerability to the impacts of wildfire events due to sociodemographic characteristics; (3) provide summary-level statistics of populations with highest wildfire risk, highlighting SES and housing cost factors; and (4) disseminate wildfire risk information via our online web application, ENVIROSCAN. Wildfire hazard potential (WHP) indices were organized at the census tract-level, and distributions were analyzed for spatial autocorrelation via global and local Moran’s tests. Sociodemographic characteristics were analyzed via k -means analysis to identify clusters with distinct SES patterns to characterize regions of similar sociodemographic/socioeconomic disparities. These SES groupings were overlayed with housing and wildfire risk profiles to establish patterns of risk across NC. Resulting geospatial analyses identified areas largely in Southeastern NC with high risk of wildfires that were significantly correlated with neighboring regions with high WHP, highlighting adjacent regions of high risk for future wildfire events. Cluster-based analysis of SES factors resulted in three groups of regions categorized through distinct SES profiling; two of these clusters (Clusters 2 and 3) contained indicators of high SES vulnerability. Cluster 2 contained a higher percentage of younger (<5 years), non-white, Hispanic and/or Latino residents; while Cluster 3 had the highest mean WHP and was characterized by a higher percentage of non-white residents, poverty, and less than a high school education. Counties of particular SES and WHP-combined vulnerability include those with majority non-white residents, tribal communities, and below poverty level households largely located in Southeastern NC. WHP values per census tract were dispersed to the public via the ENVIROSCAN application, alongside other environmentally-relevant data
Cartography · Environmental health · Geography · Geospatial analysis · Hazard · Poison control · Population · Socioeconomic status · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Fire effects on ecosystems · Medicine · Ecology
Algorithm as 136
Rapid growth of the US wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk
The unequal vulnerability of communities of color to wildfire
Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes
Environmental Health Disparities
Critical Review of Health Impacts of Wildfire Smoke Exposure
Climate Justice in a Climate Changed World
Utilization of the Maryland Environmental Justice Screening Tool
Symposium on Integrating the Science of Environmental Justice into Decision-Making at the Environmental Protection Agency
Social Vulnerability in US Communities Affected by Wildfire Smoke, 2011 to 2021
Expanding the Scope of Environmental Risk Assessment to Better Include Differential Vulnerability and Susceptibility
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |