The temporal trajectories and driving forces of wildfire regimes differing between wildland–cropland and wildland–urban interfaces on the Central Yunnan Plateau

Abstract Background As human activities continue to extend into wildland areas, wildfire risk in wildland-urban interfaces (WUI) has drawn considerable attention. By contrast, the wildland-cropland interface (WCI) has been less examined, and few studies have compared the spatiotemporal patterns and driving forces of wildfire between these two types of interfaces. Based on Landsat data from 1990 to 2023, we compared fire activity and its drivers in WCI and WUI landscapes on the Central Yunnan Plateau (CYP), China, at multiple spatial scales. Results The results indicate a clear turning point around 2010. Before 2010, burned area increased in both interfaces. After 2010, both burned area in the WCI and its share of total burned area declined markedly, whereas the share of the WUI remained stable, after 2010. Concurrently, the fire regime shifted from winter-spring dominance toward greater summer extension, with spring burned area in WUI increasing after 2000. Meteorological factors dominated fire variability in both interfaces: temperature primarily controlled fire occurrence, whereas relative humidity governed burned-area percentage. Beyond this shared climatic background, fire occurrence in the WCI was more strongly associated with population density, whereas fire occurrence in the WUI was more constrained by topographic relief. Burned-area percentage in the WCI exhibited a climate-dominated pattern, whereas that in the WUI was jointly influenced by coniferous forest proportion and population density. Conclusions By comparing WCI and WUI fires over more than three decades, this study shows that the two interfaces have distinct fire regimes and require differentiated management. After 2010, the regional focus of wildfire activity shifted increasingly from WCI landscapes toward the WUI, where fuel continuity and population exposure jointly shaped burned-area percentage. Fire management should therefore place greater emphasis on agricultural fire regulation in the WCI and fuel management in the WUI.