Form Submission: Participation Entry

Research Day Entry

Wildfires and Human (Im)mobilities in the Western United States

As climate change impacts intensify in the coming years, many scholars predict a rise in environmentally-induced displacements. In the Western United States, the growing damage caused by wildfires is already an urgent problem, with last year’s Camp Fire alone displacing more than 50,000 people. Despite its growing importance, little empirical work exists on the relationship between climate change impacts and migration in the United States, and almost no research investigates how wildfires affect human mobility. What happens to the demographic composition of a neighborhood after serious fire damage? Who is able to return and who leaves permanently? How do housing markets change after major fire damage? What does post-fire reconstruction look like, and who benefits most from this process? This presentation will outline proposed dissertation research on wildfires and human migration in the Western United States, with a special focus on the role that the built environment plays in shaping mobility patterns.