Social and Economic Disparities Impact Wildfire Protection
Freiburg, 09/01/2025
Low-income communities in California are at a greater risk of suffering the consequences of wildfires – also because they are less well protected. This is the conclusion reached by an international research team at the University of Freiburg and Stanford University.
A forest on fire. Photo: Yelantsevv
An international team of researchers at the University of Freiburg and Stanford University investigated how social and economic disparities impact the ability of communities in California to protect themselves against wildfires. The study focused on roof renewals, one of the most effective but also most cost-intensive measures for making homes more resistant to fire. The researchers published their study on significant disparities in wildfire protection in the journal Nature Communications.
Financial support and educational programmes for wildfire protection
The researchers investigated the relationship between economic weakness and wildfire protection in communities by analysing building permits from 16 counties in California with 2.9 million buildings in the years 2013 to 2021. The results show that structurally disadvantaged communities implement essential measures like roof renewals less frequently and could thus be much more exposed to the consequences of wildfires in the future. For example, the risk of homes being destroyed by wildfires within 30 years is 29 per cent greater in communities designated by the US government as disadvantaged than it is in less disadvantaged communities. At the same time, the rate of roof renewals is 28 per cent lower. This also has an impact on future risks, because a new roof can reduce the risk of a residential building being destroyed by fire by up to 27 percentage points.
“This research makes it clear how important targeted support and educational programmes are for improving the resilience of these disadvantaged communities against wildfires”
Sebastian Reining
Climate Action Research Lab (CARL), University of Freiburg
“This research makes it clear how important targeted support and educational programmes are for improving the resilience of these disadvantaged communities against wildfires”, explains Sebastian Reining from the University of Freiburg’s Climate Action Research Lab (CARL). The results cannot be transferred one-to-one to Europe, says Reining, because the settlement structures and building stock differ, but European countries could learn from the research and should investigate to what extent disparities affect the implementation of climate adaptation measures.
More Information
- Original title of the publication: Reining, S., Wussow, M., Zanocco, C. et al. Roof renewal disparities widen the equity gap in residential wildfire protection. Nat Commun 16, 463 (2025).
- Sebastian Reining is a doctoral candidate under Prof. Dr. Dirk Neumann, Chair of Business Informatics at the University of Freiburg, and a member of the Climate Action Research Lab (CARL). In his research, he studies how households implement measures for adapting to and reducing climate risks. The research project was funded in part by the European Union in the context of the HORIZON programme ‘Climate-Resilient Development Pathways in Metropolitan Regions of Europe (CARMINE)’.
Climate Action Research Lab (CARL)
The Climate Action Research Lab (CARL) at the University of Freiburg is a multidisciplinary research group devoted to the development and assessment of strategies for decarbonization and adaptation to the consequences of climate change. Under the direction of Dr. Moritz Wussow, the group concentrates on the data-supported investigation of dynamics that drive the spread of climate-relevant technologies, as well as the evaluation of the effectiveness of regulatory interventions. CARL maintains close links to researchers in other European countries and the USA, including those at renowned institutions like Stanford University, the Berkeley Lab, and Leiden University.