Data-Driven Wildland Fire Research

Open to Stanford community

Data-Driven forest dryness monitoring
Krishna Rao
PhD Candidate, Dept. of Earth Systems Science

Climate change has contributed to a chronic increase in wildfire areas in the western US, yet some ecosystems have been less affected than others. In this talk, Krishna will demonstrate that plant-water’s sensitivity to climate regulates the increase in burned area in response to atmospheric drying. This phenomenon has led to particularly rapid increases in human exposure to wildfire and wildfire risk, both because the population living in areas with high plant-water sensitivity grew more quickly than in other areas, and because atmospheric dryness has also risen most rapidly in these vulnerable areas.

For seminar information, please contact Derek Fong at dfongATstanfordDOTedu