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Relationships between Human Population Density and Burned Area at Continental and Global Scales

Title: Relationships between Human Population Density and Burned Area at Continental and Global Scales
Authors: Bistinas, I
Oom, D
Sa, ACL
Harrison, SP
Prentice, IC
Pereira, JMC
Item Type: Journal Article
Abstract: We explore the large spatial variation in the relationship between population density and burned area, using continental-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) based on 13 years of satellite-derived burned area maps from the global fire emissions database (GFED) and the human population density from the gridded population of the world (GPW 2005). Significant relationships are observed over 51.5% of the global land area, and the area affected varies from continent to continent: population density has a significant impact on fire over most of Asia and Africa but is important in explaining fire over < 22% of Europe and Australia. Increasing population density is associated with both increased and decreased in fire. The nature of the relationship depends on land-use: increasing population density is associated with increased burned are in rangelands but with decreased burned area in croplands. Overall, the relationship between population density and burned area is non-monotonic: burned area initially increases with population density and then decreases when population density exceeds a threshold. These thresholds vary regionally. Our study contributes to improved understanding of how human activities relate to burned area, and should contribute to a better estimate of atmospheric emissions from biomass burning.
Issue Date: 16-Dec-2013
Date of Acceptance: 11-Oct-2013
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/56720
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081188
ISSN: 1932-6203
Publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE
Journal / Book Title: PLOS ONE
Volume: 8
Issue: 12
Copyright Statement: © 2013 Bistinas et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords: Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
FIRE REGIMES
CLIMATE-CHANGE
REGRESSION
BIOMASS
AFRICA
ECOSYSTEMS
VEGETATION
EMISSIONS
PRODUCTS
WILDFIRE
Biomass
Climate
Ecosystem
Fires
Humans
Population Density
MD Multidisciplinary
General Science & Technology
Publication Status: Published
Article Number: ARTN e81188
Appears in Collections:Department of Life Sciences
Grantham Institute for Climate Change
Faculty of Natural Sciences