More people, more fire, less water: exploring wildfire risks to water security in a changing world

• Author / Creator

  Robinne, François-Nicolas

• Water security is one of the main paradigms presently shaping global water governance. At its very core, water security aims at preserving freshwater resources from any form of risk, natural or human-caused, that could imperil or further delay the stability and the sustainability of societies and ecosystems. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals has acknowledged this paradigm as a key avenue towards the alleviation of poverty, the promotion of gender equality, the universal access to sanitation, and the protection of natural environments. However, reaching a universal water secure state, a harsh endeavor in itself, has been further complicated by the pervasive effects of global environmental change, among which widespread climate anomalies and population growth represent the main hurdles. The instability caused by environmental change has led to the emergence of risk situations that have never been encountered before and for which global analysis tools and governance strategies have yet to be designed. Wildland fires are one of the most important natural drivers of vegetation dynamics at the surface of the globe. In many parts of the world, global environmental change has led to more conducive fire weather patterns combined with a higher ignition frequency due to landscape anthropization. This situation has increased the occurrence, extent, and severity of catastrophic wildfires in many areas critical for the provision of surface freshwater supplies to downstream human and natural communities. Although fire-caused alterations of the hydrological cycle have been recognized for a long time, the upsurge of extensive and severe blazes in many basins’ headwaters has shed light on the exposure of downstream populations and aquatic ecosystems to post-fire hydrogeomorphic hazards, such as floods or nutrient pollution. Exposed assets are therefore made vulnerable to harmful consequences such as the degradation of environmental flows, the disruption of the drinking-water supply, or the destruction of infrastructures. The emergence of wildfire-related risks to freshwater resources is thus becoming a new challenge to add to the long list of threats to water security, and solving this issue will not be done without innovative research efforts. The research presented hereafter offers the first global exploration of wildfire risks to water security. The resulting work offers three main outcomes. First, it widens the water security paradigm by demonstrating the growing danger that wildfires represent to the freshwater supply. Secondly, it provides an efficient and highly flexible risk analysis framework to researchers, managers, and policy-makers involved in the resolution of water security matters and the design of disaster risk reduction strategies. Finally, it proposes a reflection on the deleterious, though often overlooked, emerging effects of global environmental change affecting the interactions between fire activity and the hydrologic cycle. This work will hopefully help to better guide global water governance by acknowledging the extensive and potentially dangerous effects of wildfires on socio-hydrological systems.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Water security
  • Fire risk
  • Global change
  • Global scale
  • DPSIR framework
  • Wildfires
  • Natural hazard

• Graduation date

  Spring 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3P844B1Z

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.