Integrating earth observation data into the tri-environmental evaluation of the economic cost of natural disasters: a case study of 2025 LA wildfire

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed, multi-source framework integrating satellite, infrastructure, and population data to evaluate the economic, ecological, and social impacts of the 2025 LA wildfire, aiding targeted disaster management.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, highly replicable tri-environmental assessment framework combining satellite imagery, infrastructure, and population data for natural disaster impact analysis.

Findings

Estimated economic losses of approximately 4.86 billion USD.

Maximum daily population exposure of over 4,300 residents.

Identified distinct ecological, infrastructural, and social impacts in two LA regions.

Abstract

Wildfires in urbanized regions, particularly within the wildland-urban interface, have significantly intensified in frequency and severity, driven by rapid urban expansion and climate change. This study aims to provide a comprehensive, fine-grained evaluation of the recent 2025 Los Angeles wildfire's impacts, through a multi-source, tri-environmental framework in the social, built and natural environmental dimensions. This study employed a spatiotemporal wildfire impact assessment method based on daily satellite fire detections from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), infrastructure data from OpenStreetMap, and high-resolution dasymetric population modeling to capture the dynamic progression of wildfire events in two distinct Los Angeles County regions, Eaton and Palisades, which occurred in January 2025. The modelling result estimated that the total direct economic losses reached approximately 4.86 billion USD with the highest single-day losses recorded on January 8 in both districts. Population exposure reached a daily maximum of 4,342 residents in Eaton and 3,926 residents in Palisades. Our modelling results highlight early, severe ecological and infrastructural damage in Palisades, as well as delayed, intense social and economic disruptions in Eaton. This tri-environmental framework underscores the necessity for tailored, equitable wildfire management strategies, enabling more effective emergency responses, targeted urban planning, and community resilience enhancement. Our study contributes a highly replicable tri-environmental framework for evaluating the natural, built and social environmental costs of natural disasters, which can be applied to future risk profiling, hazard mitigation, and environmental management in the era of climate change.