The Wildland-Urban Interface in the United States
Radeloff VC, Hammer RB, Stewart I, Fried JS, Holcomb SS, McKeefry JF. 2005. The Wildland-Urban Interface in the United States. Ecological Applications. 15(3):799-805
The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the area where houses meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland vegetation. The WUI is thus a focal area for human-environment conflicts, such as the destruction of homes by wildfires, habitat fragmentation, introduction of exotic species, and biodiversity decline. Our goal was to conduct a spatially detailed assessment of the WUI across the United States to provide a framework for scientific inquiries into housing growth effects on the environment and to inform both national policy makers and local land managers about the WUI and assoicated issues. The WUI in the conterminous US covers 719156 km sq (9% of land area) and contains 44.8 million housing units (39% of all houses). WUI areas are particularly widespread in the eastern US, maximum 72% of land area in Connecticut. CA has the highest number of WUI housing units (5.1 mil). The extent of the WUI highlights the need for ecological principles in landuse planning as well as sprawl-limiting policies to adequately address both wildfire threats and conservation problems.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Radeloff, V; Hammer, R.; Stewart, I; Fried, J; Holcomb, S; McKeefry, J
- Units
- PACN
- Keywords
- Landscape, Landuse, Methods, PACN, Protocol, Wildland Urban Interface