Wildfire Hazards in a Changing Climate: Risks, Impacts, and Adaptation

A special issue of GeoHazards (ISSN 2624-795X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 761

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Interests: nature-based solution; ecology; biogeography; geospatial and statistical modeling applications; remote sensing; meta-analysis; biodiversity; climate change

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Guest Editor
Department of Geosciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Interests: ecological biogeography; ecological restoration; vegetation dynamics and disturbance; spatial, statistical, and ecosystem modeling; human–wildlife interactions; sustainability and conservation

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Guest Editor
Department of Geosciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Interests: biogeography; fire ecology; geospatial science; machine learning; weather and climate modeling; renewable energy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global warming is changing wildfire regimes and their interactions with geomorphological, climatological, and socio-economic hazards, with cascading effects across systems. This Special Issue intends to combine research exploring the changing nature of wildfire interactions with the risks and impacts of geomorphic processes to natural and human systems, as well as adaptation strategies and tactics used to confront these evolving threats. We invite research that broadly addresses these issues, including, but not limited to, post-fire vegetation removal leading to soil loss, destabilized slopes and landslides, debris and mudflows, rockslides, permafrost thawing and sinkhole creation, altered infiltration rates that increase flash flooding, and extreme drought–wildfire–rainfall sequences that leave watersheds highly erodible. We also encourage submissions investigating broader climate feedback, including the release of GHGs (from soils and biomass), which contribute to global warming and in turn increase future wildfire–geomorphic hazard risks.

The societal consequences of these hazards are significant. They include challenges faced by communities in downslope and downstream areas and those within the wildland–urban interface, where health, lives, infrastructure, private property, and businesses are at risk, and planning and management actions are being taken to adapt to the changing conditions. We welcome systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and primary studies that employ field observations, geospatial and climate datasets, and remote sensing products, as well as applications of statistical and geospatial analyses and modelling in various forms. By drawing contributions from diverse fields, this Special Issue aims to advance our understanding of wildfire hazards in a changing climate and to inform strategies for resilience, policy, and management.

Dr. Rabindra Parajuli
Dr. Scott H. Markwith
Dr. Asha Paudel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. GeoHazards is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wildfire hazards
  • climate change and wildfire risk
  • geomorphic impacts of wildfires
  • fire-induced slope destabilization
  • watershed and flooding impacts of wildfire
  • wildland-urban interface and community vulnerability
  • socio-economic consequences of wildfires
  • climate feedback of wildfire (GHGs release, permafrost thaw)
  • extreme weather interactions with wildfire
  • climate adaptation and risk mitigation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1532 KB  
Article
Can Greece Solve Its Wildfire Problem?
by Kostas Kalabokidis, Olga Roussou, Christos Vasilakos, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Dimitrios Zianis, Katerina Trepekli, Pau Brunet-Navarro, José Ramón González-Olabarria, José G. Borges, Susete Marques, Dagm F. Abate, William M. Jolly and Alan A. Ager
GeoHazards 2026, 7(2), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/geohazards7020055 (registering DOI) - 14 May 2026
Viewed by 200
Abstract
Greece is facing a wildfire crisis that parallels many other countries in fire-prone regions around the globe. Recent wildfire data for Greece point to an alarming trend of increasing fire size and severity catalyzed by climate change, lack of forest and fuel management, [...] Read more.
Greece is facing a wildfire crisis that parallels many other countries in fire-prone regions around the globe. Recent wildfire data for Greece point to an alarming trend of increasing fire size and severity catalyzed by climate change, lack of forest and fuel management, urban expansion into wildlands around major population centers, and rural exodus from areas that traditionally supported fire-resilient land uses. Fire management in Greece has long emphasized suppression with relatively little attention to prevention and coordination. In this paper, we identify key factors that are slowing progress towards a solution to the Greek wildfire crisis, including the current legislative framework around wildfire management that has contributed to conflicts and inefficiency. We then discuss specific policies to rebalance the current suppression emphasis by integrating new prevention strategies aiming to create fire-resilient landscapes and reduce wildfire impacts, widely adopt the use of technology, and enhance stakeholder cooperation for more efficient fire suppression. We also highlight how optimizing landscape scale management of fuels is contributing solutions to the wildfire crisis, specifically from the EU-funded FIRE-RES project. Full article
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