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- Info
Planning for resilience: modeling change in human-fire interactions in the Alaskan boreal forest
| Author: |
Chapin, F.S., III; Rupp, T.S.; Starfield, A.M. [and others] |
| Date: |
2003 |
| Periodical: |
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment |
| Abstract: |
The development of policies that promote ecological, economic, and cultural sustainability requires collaboration between natural and social scientists. We present a modeling approach to facilitate this communication and illustrate its application to studies of wildfire in the interior of Alaska. We distill the essence of complex fire-vegetation interactions that occur in the real world into a simplified landscape model, and describe how equally complex fire-human interactions could be incorporated into a similar modeling framework. Simulations suggest that fire suppression is likely to increase the proportion of flammable vegetation on the landscape and reduce the long-term effectiveness of wildfire suppression. Simple models that test the consequences of assumptions help natural and social scientists to communicate objectively when exploring the long-term consequences of alternative policy scenarios. |
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