Anna Karali, Konstantinos V. Varotsos, Christos Giannakopoulos, Panagiotis P. Nastos, and Maria Hatzaki. February 2023
This study focuses on predicting seasonal fire danger in the fire-prone Attica region of Greece using high-resolution forecasts. By analyzing weather conditions and utilizing the Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) and Initial Spread Index (ISI), the study found that these indices are reliable in forecasting above-normal fire danger conditions. The forecasts were compared with historical fire data, showing the ability to identify years with high fire occurrences. This information can assist regional authorities in implementing effective fire prevention strategies and allocating resources accordingly.
Jaime Carrasco, Rodrigo Mahaluf, Fulgencio Lisón, Cristobal Pais, Alejandro Miranda, Felipe de la Barra, David Palacios, Andrés Weintraub. May 2023
This study proposes the use of a specific approach to optimize the selection of firebreak locations for better wildfire protection.
The approach considers ecological values, historical fire patterns, and fire behavior. By using a computer model, the optimal placement of firebreaks is determined by balancing the tradeoff between potential biodiversity loss from vegetation removal and the protection provided by the firebreaks. The model’s optimal solution reduces expected biodiversity losses from wildfires by 30% compared to doing nothing and performs 16% better than randomly chosen firebreak locations. This highlights the potential of firebreaks to mitigate biodiversity loss by effectively protecting against future forest fires.
Karol Bot and José G. Borges. January 2022
This paper aims to provide an overview of recent applications of machine learning methods for decision support in wildfire management. The focus is on providing a summary of these applications with classification according to case study type, machine learning method, case study location, and performance metrics. This publication highlights that the application of machine learning methods can help to improve support at different stages of fire management.
Míriam Piqué , José Ramón González-Olabarria and Eduard Busquets. May 2022
This publication investigates the effectiveness of precommercial thinning, over time, implemented on Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) thickets, regarding fuel evolution and potential fire behavior. The study was implemented in 44 plots at different stages of fuel evolution. The results show that precommercial thinning has a positive impact on fire mitigation, but the impact that opening the tree canopy has on ground vegetation development must be considered in order to plan more efficient management strategies.
Adrián Cardil, Marcos, Rodrigues, Mario Tapia, Renaud Barbero,Joaquin Ramírez, Cathelijne R. Stoof, Carlos Alberto Silva, Midhun Mohan, and Sergio de-Miguel. January 2023
Climate teleconnections (CT) remotely influence weather conditions in many regions on Earth, entailing changes in primary drivers of fire activity such as vegetation biomass accumulation and moisture. This publication summarises the CT-fire relationships into a set of six global CT domains that are discussed by continent, considering the underlying mechanisms relating weather patterns and vegetation types with burned areas across the different world’s biomes. Additionally, it highlights the regional CT-fire relationships worldwide, aiming to further support fire management and policy-making.
Margarita Bachantourian, Kostas Kalabokidis, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Kyriakos Chaleplis. February 2023
The paper focuses on the critical issue of fuel treatment allocation in Kassandra, located in northern Greece. The objective of the study is to safeguard the wildland-urban interface from the risk of large-scale wildfires. The outcomes of this research have been successfully implemented by the Greek Forest Service to reduce the area burned in the region by future wildfires, while simultaneously moderating fire intensity and spread rates.
Jose Ramon Gonzalez-Olabarria, Jaime Carrasco, Cristobal Pais, Jordi Garcia-Gonzalo, David Palacios-Meneses, Rodrigo Mahaluf-Recasens, Olena Porkhum and Andres Weintraub. February 2023
This article highlights the importance of fire simulation tools in landscape and forest management. It emphasizes the need to consider fire risk and mitigation goals and the benefits of combining fire simulation with growth and yield simulation for maximizing ecosystem services. The article focuses on the requirements for a fire simulator for tactical forest planning and introduces Cell2Fire_SB, a simulator capable of simulating crown fires. Its goal is to be integrated into a decision support system for solving temporal dynamic tactical forest problems.