Building a Nature-based System to Prevent Severe Forest Fire Induced by Climate Change

Teaching staff.
Supervisor: Han Yuwen, Li Lingjie, Wan Min
Co-supervisor:

Students.
Authors: Pan Yingi, Li Lingjie, Lu Meng

Due to climate change, forest fires occur more and more frequently all over the world, which lead to more carbon

emission so that exacerbate the climate problem. Xichang, a southwest city in China, is one of the victims of this

vicious circle. There were 6 large-area forest fire in Xichang in the past 10 years, among which the worst case

caused more than 1000ha area burnt. It is believed that these wildfires are closely related to the climate change of

Xichang in the past 30 years, including rising temperature and reduced humidity. What’s worse, the hot-dry wind

brought by valley effect makes the fire more intense and frequent. Therefore, here we take Xichang as an example

to show how to alleviate the fire problem by building a nature-based system.

We will use the following strategies to prevent and mitigate climate-induced forest fire. The existing hot foehn

wind and air condition can be converted to the usable energy for the rainwater collection systems, sprayers and

monitor at fire-prone sites. In high fire season, the monitoring system will play an important role. Besides, herbs

are planted under the original monocultural tree plantation, so as to increase the air humidity and then reduce the risk of fire. This project can serve as a model to deal with wildfires for cities located in hot and dry valley.