Disproportionately large impacts of wildland-urban interface fire emissions on global air quality and human health

Fires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are a global issue with growing importance. However, the impact of WUI fires on air quality and health is less understood compared to that of fires in wildland. We analyze WUI fire impacts on air quality and health at the global scale using a multi-scale atmospheric chemistry model—the Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols model (MUSICA). WUI fires have notable impacts on key air pollutants [e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), and ozone (O 3 )]. The health impact of WUI fire emission is disproportionately large compared to wildland fires primarily because WUI fires are closer to human settlement. Globally, the fraction of WUI fire–caused annual premature deaths (APDs) to all fire–caused APDs is about three times of the fraction of WUI fire emissions to all fire emissions. The developed model framework can be applied to address critical needs in understanding and mitigating WUI fires and their impacts.

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Author Tang, Wenfu
Emmons, Louisa K.
Wiedinmyer, C.
Partha, D. B.
Huang, Y.
He, Cenlin
Zhang, J.
Barsanti, Kelley
Gaubert, Benjamin
Jo, D.
Zhang, Jun
Buchholz, Rebecca
Tilmes, Simone
Vitt, Francis M.
Granier, C.
Worden, Helen M.
Levelt, Pieternel F.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2025-03-14T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-10T19:53:36.901576
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:43270
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Tang, Wenfu, Emmons, Louisa K., Wiedinmyer, C., Partha, D. B., Huang, Y., He, Cenlin, Zhang, J., Barsanti, Kelley, Gaubert, Benjamin, Jo, D., Zhang, Jun, Buchholz, Rebecca, Tilmes, Simone, Vitt, Francis M., Granier, C., Worden, Helen M., Levelt, Pieternel F.. (2025). Disproportionately large impacts of wildland-urban interface fire emissions on global air quality and human health. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75q51gh. Accessed 09 August 2025.

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