Wildfire Exposure: Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon 1984-2054

• Main Authors: Jennifer Schmidt, Zeke Ziel
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2023
• Subjects: Wildfire; Alaska; Fairbanks; Anchorage; Yukon; Canada; Whitehorse; Fire; Hazard; Mitigation; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A20Z70Z3G

We modified an existing approach to assess decadal wildfire hazards based primarily on ember dispersal and wildfire proximity, referencing landscape changes from 1984 through 2014. Our modifications created a categorial flammability hazard scheme, rather than dichotomous, and the integration of wildfire exposure results across spatial scales. We used remote sensed land cover from four decadal points to create flammability hazard and wildfire exposure maps for three arctic communities (Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon). Within the Fairbanks study area, we compared 2014 flammability hazard, wildfire exposure, and FlamMap burn probabilities among burned (2014-2021) and unburned areas. Exposure values were greater in burned than unburned, unlike burn probabilities.