Igniting Progress: Outcomes from the FLARE workshop and three challenges for the future of transdisciplinary fire science.

Workshop participants identified three main challenges that need to be addressed by the global fire community:  1. Unifying transdisciplinary research around common boundary objects, starting with "The role of fire in the carbon cycle” 2. Better characterizing “Fire and extreme events” 3. Taking a holistic approach to understand “Fire interactions with humans.” Each challenge is explored in dedicated sections with priority questions identified. Common themes that unite these challenges include the importance of transdisciplinary collaboration, encompassing the consequences of fire on society and on the Earth System, addressing communication barriers across the many disciplines involved in the study of fire, including different definitions and sources of uncertainties, and orientating physical science toward solution-based studies by adopting a more proactive approach to predicting fire behaviour and impacts. We explore these concepts within this white paper with suggestions designed to formulate a roadmap for fire science research over the next decade. 

Impact/Purpose

Fire is a deeply integrated Earth System component. From the land to the ocean, from ecology to people, and from the past to the future: fire is a truly transdisciplinary research topic. However, integrated research across disciplines, institutions, and fire practitioners into its myriad connections throughout the Earth System and interdependencies with society is not well established. This creates barriers to a holistic understanding of how the rapid changes we are seeing in the fire regimes will impact the health of our planet and its inhabitants. Diverse expertise from across the environmental sciences, humanities, and social sciences is needed to fully characterise and identify the main challenges facing fire science. The concept of FLARE is to design and develop a proactive approach to advancing transdisciplinary fire science, providing a framework for knowledge transfer of fire science to all disciplines. Recognizing the multidimensional nature of fire, the first goal of FLARE was to host a workshop that initiated collaborations across disciplines and expertise. Building upon the momentum of a Future Earth COP27 side event on fire, the FLARE working group was launched at a workshop held online and in-person at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science (BIOS) in September 2023, providing a platform for discussing the latest scientific knowledge on fire. The workshop facilitated the promotion and integration of cutting-edge satellite data, on-site fieldwork, laboratory experiments, social science, mathematics, and modelling with the broad range of expertise essential for addressing diverse research questions related to fire. Striking a balance between contemporary research and a robust paleofire perspective, the workshop offered insights into how fire regimes have shaped and continue to shape the Earth System, particularly in response to climate change and human activities. This white paper synthesises the many discussions held over the 3.5-day workshop. It presents the current state-of-the-science from land, atmosphere, ocean, social science perspectives. The workshop highlighted a poor constraint on our understanding of “future impacts of fires on the Earth System”, which stems from a lack of communication between relevant fields of expertise. In particular, a disconnection was identified between scientific approaches to understanding and characterising fire processes and the societal implications of fire events.

Citation

Hamilton, D., D. Kelley, M. Perron, J. Llort, C. Burton, E. Bergas-Masso, N. Liguori-Bills, A. Barkley, R. Buchholz, S. Diez, K. Dintwe, M. Forkel, J. Hall, S. Hantson, G. Hayman, S. Hebden, M. Jones, C. Kulkarni, B. Nowell, J. McCarty, C. Santin, S. Schneider, J. Shuman, J. Thoreson, S. Plummer, B. Poulter, B. Vanniere, AND C. Volker. Igniting Progress: Outcomes from the FLARE workshop and three challenges for the future of transdisciplinary fire science. Zenodo, Geneva, SWITZERLAND, 2024. [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12634068]

DOI: Igniting Progress: Outcomes from the FLARE workshop and three challenges for the future of transdisciplinary fire science.