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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 associated issues. The WUI in the conterminous United States covers 719 156 km2 (9% of land area) and contains 44.8 million housing units (39% of all houses). WUI areas are particularly widespread in the eastern United States, reaching a maximum of 72% of land area in Connecticut. California has the highest number of WUI housing units (5.1 million). The extent of the WUI highlights the need for ecological principles in land-use planning as well as sprawl-limiting policies to adequately address both wildfire threats and conservation problems. © 2005 by the Ecological Society of America. Abstract reproduced by permission.
Cataloging Information
- Appalachian Mountains
- Colorado
- coniferous forests
- Connecticut
- conservation
- cover
- deciduous forests
- fire damage (property)
- fire management
- forest management
- fragmentation
- fragmentation
- GIS
- grasslands
- Great Lakes
- herbaceous vegetation
- housing growth
- land use
- land use planning
- north Florida
- population density
- shrublands
- species diversity
- Texas
- urban habitats
- urban sprawl
- urbanization
- vegetation surveys
- wetlands
- wildfire
- wildfires
- wildland fire
- woody plants
This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.