Decoding wildland-urban interface fire regimes in Hong Kong

IF 6.7 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening Pub Date : 2025-10-02 DOI:10.1016/j.ufug.2025.129095

Yizhou Li , Zhiqing Pan , Cong Gao , Chunming Shi , Shaorun Lin , Xinyan Huang

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Wildfire threats in highly urbanized landscapes remain poorly characterized, particularly in high-density regions such as Hong Kong, where unique wildland-urban interface (WUI) dynamics prevail. Here, we analyzed a comprehensive wildfire dataset of 12,545 events spanning 2010–2024 in Hong Kong, revealing a human-dominated regime in WUI zones. Our fire-behavior-based clustering delineated pyroregions, and revealed the small-scale (< 1 ha) fires dominant in Hong Kong, accounting for 58.6 % of all grids and clustered in WUI zones. Anthropogenic factors, rather than climatic drivers, predominate in shaping wildfire dynamics in Hong Kong. Vegetation fraction, population density, and WUI zones were identified as the most important factors contributing to wildfires in Hong Kong. Our findings provide critical insight into wildfire risk in high populated density urban environments, underscoring the escalating threats of human-induced wildfires in WUI zones.

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破解香港野地与城市交界地带的防火制度

在高度城市化的景观中，野火威胁的特征仍然很差，特别是在香港这样的高密度地区，那里独特的荒地-城市界面（WUI）动态占主导地位。在这里，我们分析了香港2010年至2024年期间12,545起野火事件的综合数据集，揭示了WUI区域的人类主导制度。我们基于火灾行为的聚类划分了火区，并揭示了香港以小规模（< 1 ha）火灾为主，占所有网格的58.6% %，并聚集在WUI区域。人为因素，而非气候因素，是影响香港野火动态的主要因素。植被覆盖度、人口密度和WUI区是影响香港野火的最重要因素。我们的研究结果为高人口密度城市环境中的野火风险提供了重要见解，强调了WUI地区人为野火的威胁不断升级。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening FORESTRY-

CiteScore

11.70

自引率

12.50%

发文量

289

审稿时长

70 days

期刊介绍： Urban Forestry and Urban Greening is a refereed, international journal aimed at presenting high-quality research with urban and peri-urban woody and non-woody vegetation and its use, planning, design, establishment and management as its main topics. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening concentrates on all tree-dominated (as joint together in the urban forest) as well as other green resources in and around urban areas, such as woodlands, public and private urban parks and gardens, urban nature areas, street tree and square plantations, botanical gardens and cemeteries. The journal welcomes basic and applied research papers, as well as review papers and short communications. Contributions should focus on one or more of the following aspects: -Form and functions of urban forests and other vegetation, including aspects of urban ecology. -Policy-making, planning and design related to urban forests and other vegetation. -Selection and establishment of tree resources and other vegetation for urban environments. -Management of urban forests and other vegetation. Original contributions of a high academic standard are invited from a wide range of disciplines and fields, including forestry, biology, horticulture, arboriculture, landscape ecology, pathology, soil science, hydrology, landscape architecture, landscape planning, urban planning and design, economics, sociology, environmental psychology, public health, and education.