Rapidly increasing human-nature interactions exacerbate the risk of exposure to wildfires for human society. The wildland-urban interface (WUI) represents the nexus of human-nature interactions, where the risk of exposure to natural hazards such as wildfire is most pronounced. However, quantifying long-term global WUI change and the corresponding driving factors at fine resolution remain challenging. Here, we mapped and analyzed the global WUI at 30-meter resolution in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Our analysis revealed that the global WUI expanded by 35.6% since 2000, reaching 1.93 million square kilometer in 2020. Notably, 85% of this growth occurred between 2010 and 2020. The increase in WUI was primarily driven by the unprecedented expansion of global urbanization, contributing an additional 589,914 square kilometer of WUI. In addition, the number of small fires occurring in WUI areas has increased substantially since 2010. These findings underscore the rising wildfire risk to human society and highlight the urgency of implementing tailored fire management strategies in WUI areas.

中文翻译：

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21 世纪荒地-城市界面的全球扩张加剧了人类面临野火风险的风险


人类与自然互动的迅速增加加剧了人类社会暴露于野火的风险。荒野-城市界面 （WUI） 代表了人与自然互动的纽带，其中暴露于野火等自然灾害的风险最为明显。然而，以精细分辨率量化长期全球 WUI 变化和相应的驱动因素仍然具有挑战性。在这里，我们绘制并分析了 2000 年、2010 年和 2020 年以 30 米分辨率绘制和分析了全球 WUI。我们的分析显示，自 2000 年以来，全球 WUI 增长了 35.6%，到 2020 年达到 193 万平方公里。值得注意的是，其中 85% 的增长发生在 2010 年至 2020 年之间。WUI 的增长主要是由于全球城市化进程的空前扩张，增加了 589,914 平方公里的 WUI。此外，自 2010 年以来，WUI 地区发生的小型火灾数量大幅增加。这些发现强调了人类社会不断上升的野火风险，并强调了在 WUI 地区实施量身定制的火灾管理策略的紧迫性。