In recent years, a worldwide expansion in the frequency of large, uncontrolled, and catastrophic wildfire events has occurred, creating drastic social, economic, and environmental damage, especially in wildland–urban interface (WUI) zones. This damage includes losses of life, infrastructure, and ecosystem services. The impacts of wildfires at the WUI derive from the complicated and multidimensional interconnected relationships present in the Anthropocene. To enforce resilience of the environment and human communities against wildfires, it is critical to comprehend the local social-ecological systems holistically. In this paper, we present a theoretical framework approach, built on performance-based wildfire engineering, that is envisioned to be a stepping stone towards WUI resilience. To attain this objective, performance benchmarking and design is disaggregated into explicit components of a rigorous mathematical framework. They are linked to a causal inference chain, providing an integrated picture and enabling decision analysis to identify the optimal management strategies based on quantitative parameters. The proposed framework is developed from the total probability theorem and divides the risk assessment into single parts, in particular (1) hazard (wildfire) analysis, (2) social-ecological impact characterization, (3) social-ecological interaction analysis, (4) social-ecological impact analysis, (5) damage analysis, and (6) loss analysis. Therefore, the proposed framework can be applied by emergency agencies directly to assess the performance of society and ecosystem recovery after a wildfire, making emergency management and resilience policy-making more effective.

Forest ecosystems are our priceless natural resource and are a key component of the global carbon budget. Forest fires can be a hazard to the viability and sustainable management of forests with consequences for natural and cultural environments, economies, and the life quality of local and regional populations. Thus, the selection of strategies to manage forest fires, while considering both functional and economic efficiency, is of primary importance. The use of decision support systems (DSSs) by managers of forest fires has rapidly increased. This has strengthened capacity to prevent and suppress forest fires while protecting human lives and property. DSSs are a tool that can benefit incident management and decision making and policy, especially for emergencies such as natural disasters. In this study we reviewed state-of-the-art DSSs that use: database management systems and mathematical/economic algorithms for spatial optimization of firefighting forces; forest fire simulators and satellite technology for immediate detection and prediction of evolution of forest fires; GIS platforms that incorporate several tools to manipulate, process and analyze geographic data and develop strategic and operational plans.

Natural and anthropogenic causes jointly lead to land degradation and eventually to desertification, which occurs in arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas. Furthermore, extended drought periods may cause soil exposure and erosion, land degradation and, finally, desertification. Several climatic, geological, hydrological, physiographic, biological, as well as human factors contribute to desertification. This paper presents a methodological procedure for the quantitative classification of desertification severity over a watershed with degraded groundwater resources. It starts with drought assessment using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), based on gridded satellite-based precipitation data (taken from the CHIRPS database), then erosion potential is assessed through modeling. The groundwater levels are estimated with the use of a simulation model and the groundwater quality components of desertification, based on scattered data, are interpolated with the use of geostatistical tools. Finally, the combination of the desertification severity components leads to the final mapping of desertification severity classification.

The sustainable management of forest resources is greatly influenced by forest operations (FO). Interactions between humans and nature describe how people engage with and are impacted by the natural world. As we enter the Anthropocene epoch, we are being compelled to reevaluate our past and present methods of managing and planning our forest operations in order to find new ones that are more adaptable and successful at addressing the growing unpredictability resulting from accelerating global change. We briefly discuss the goals and constraints of the prior and current management and planning principles for forest operations in this study, focusing on how these principles have evolved on a worldwide scale. We then propose a promising idea, such as managing forest operations as complex adaptive systems and approaches based on resilience and sustainable use of forest resources, in order to achieve the necessary economic, social, and ecological goals. An in-depth understanding of the ecological, economic, and social factors that influence forest resilience is necessary for planning and managing forest operations efficiently. The proposed strategy combines the effectiveness of forest operations with a functional, complex network approach in order to manage forests for the Anthropocene.