Climate change has led to an increase in wildfire season length, frequency, and burned area.
The West Coast wildfire season, which used to run from June until October, now begins in May and stretches into January. Eight of California's ten biggest fires have occurred in the past decade.
According to the EPA, climate change has led to an increase in wildfire season length, frequency, and burned area.
NOOAA adds that changes in climate create warmer, drier conditions, leading to longer, more active fire seasons.
While most wildfire response is performed by boots-on-the-ground grueling work from firefighters, response and suppression methods must evolve alongside the increased quantity and severity of the fires. In recent years, technological advancements have provided firefighting crews with extra tools to detect, contain and even extinguish fires faster and with greater safety.
Wildfire mitigation technologies include, but are not limited to:
- A.I. maps that outline where volatile vegetation should be removed
- A.I.-enabled fire detection- Virtual 3-D cartography
- Risk-analysis systems
- Electrical-malfunction defenses
- Robotic-ball sensors
- Home rebuilding apps
Companies like Pano AI, Dryad, Rain, Perimeter Solutions, Chooch AI, Enview, Squishy Robotics, Jupiter Intelligence, Gridware, and Overstory lead the way.
Buildings and urban environments need to be designed and retrofitted to handle extreme heat, ensuring they remain energy-efficient, safe, and comfortable.
Around the world, the impacts of climate change—rising temperatures, shifting patterns of rainfall, more frequent and intense extreme weather, and rising sea levels—are affecting all types of infrastructure, from energy and transport to water, waste, and telecommunications.