Essays on the interactions between land use, natural amenity and wildfire risk

Abstract

It is essential to study the relationship between environmental features and human land-use activities that can provide a better understanding of human-environment interactions. In a response, this dissertation addresses the human-environment issues from different perspectives in three essays. The first essay conducts an integrated analysis to investigate the impacts of human activities and environmental features on wildfire occurrence at the Wildland-Urban Interface in a changing climate. We focus on the impacts of land use changes as measured by their density, connectivity, and mix. The conceptual model builds on a theoretical framework developed by Woodward (1987) and Neilson (1995) that characterizes the functioning mechanism of ecosystems. The empirical models identify the key factors that influence wildfires. Hypotheses are tested to demonstrate the spatial heterogeneity of human land-use impacts on wildfires. Results can inform the design of policies that aim to identify community vulnerabilities, reduce wildfire uncertainties, strengthen firewise community development, and inform future land-use decision making in response to wildfire threats. The second essay analyzes the impacts of wildfire risk on urban development. It builds on and expands the monocentric-city framework developed by Wu (2006) and Wu (2010) by introducing wildfire risk into this model. We calibrate the model and examine the urban spatial profiles changes under different assumptions of wildfire risks and natural amenities. We find that wildfire risk can take on various aspects of urban spatial profiles at a much broad scale that go beyond the fire-prone areas and affects both households and public decision sectors. Even without inconsistency in fire-zone designation policy, over-development can occur in fire-hazardous area. The third essay models the role of amenity in interregional migration and spatial distribution of economic activities. Extending the new economic geography model of Helpman (1998) by including locational amenities, we present a multi-market equilibrium framework that includes consumption, production, and trade. Results suggest that the effects of amenities are significantly affected by household preferences, trade barriers, and other regional economic characteristics. This study contributes to the amenity-driven migration literatures and informs the debate about the effect of amenities on interregional migrations and regional economic development.

Graduation date: 2011