Institutions, Governance and Policy for Addressing Wildfire Challenges in a Changing Global Environment

Wildfire is a naturally occurring ecological process and a tool humans have used for millennia to clear land for development, dispose of waste and replenish soil nutrients. Despite its environmental and economic functions, wildfire poses significant challenges, disrupting ecosystem services, impacting on health, damaging infrastructure, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions among others, especially when uncontrolled or employed indiscriminately. Developing effective and sustainable agricultural, forest and fire management policies to improve resilience to wildfire while maintaining the benefits from natural resource use in the context of a changing global environment requires better understanding of the complex relationship between wildfire and human activity.

This project will examine the importance of social organization, institutional quality and socioeconomic variables in determining wildfire risk, occurrence and impact. Specific questions the candidate will explore include: The influence of special interest groups in developing wildfire management, adaptation and mitigation policies, the challenges and potential for deepening international cooperation in wildfire management, the distribution of wildfire impacts across affected populations, and the role of competition between national and subnational jurisdictions in determining wildfire outcomes. The analysis will take place in the context of the uncertainties introduced in wildfire management and fire regimes by human-caused global environmental change.

The project will begin by reviewing existing evidence on the impact of social organization and institutions on wildfire across global ecosystems. It will also evaluate the impact of existing policies and assess their shortcomings in the light of global environmental change. The candidate will then apply a combination of qualitative, statistical and modelling approaches, integrating insights from economics and political science, with natural science and engineering to address questions arising. The project will draw data from large social, time use and economic surveys. It will also utilize aggregate economic date, land use, meteorological and Earth Observation data.