Assessing the impact of wildfires on property values in wildland-urban intermix and interface in Colorado: A hedonic approach

Longzhong Shi; Bo Chen; Xuan Chen; Zhuo Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115672

Assessing the impact of wildfires on property values in wildland-urban intermix and interface in Colorado: A hedonic approach

J Environ Manage. 2022 Oct 1:319:115672. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115672. Epub 2022 Jul 14.

Authors

Longzhong Shi¹, Bo Chen², Xuan Chen³, Zhuo Chen⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agriculture University, 1st Shizishan Rd., Wuhan, 430070, China. Electronic address: slz@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
² School of Economics, Nanjing University of Economics and Finance, 3rd Wenyaun Rd., Nanjing, 210023, China. Electronic address: bo.chen06@live.com.
³ College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agriculture University, 1st Shizishan Rd., Wuhan, 430070, China. Electronic address: xuan.chen@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
⁴ College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA. Electronic address: zchen1@uga.edu.

PMID: 35842986
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115672

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the impact of wildfire on property values in wildland-urban intermix (WUIM) and wildland-urban interface (WUIF) in Colorado. We construct fire indices accounting for the nonlinear impact of wildfires, and evaluate the effects of different fire attributes-proximity, frequency, and scale-on property values in a hedonic price framework using housing transactions data and wildfire data in Colorado from 2000 to 2016. We find a substantial difference in the impact of wildfires on property values between WUIM and WUIF. Specifically, larger fires depreciate property values in WUIM, but increase property values in WUIF. In addition, we find that small fires lead to a negative impact on property values in both WUIM and WUIF, which is comparable with larger fires. Our findings provide policymakers novel information in making more efficient wildfire management plans.

Keywords: Fire index; Hedonic pricing model; Wildfire; Wildland-urban interface; Wildland-urban intermix.

MeSH terms

Colorado
Fires*
Housing
Wildfires*