FIRELAN—An Ecologically Based Planning Model towards a Fire Resilient and Sustainable Landscape. A Case Study in Center Region of Portugal

This paper explores the role of landscape planning as a tool for rural fire prevention. It presents a methodology for a fire resilient and sustainable landscape model (FIRELAN) that articulates the ecological and cultural components in a suitable and multifunction land-use plan. FIRELAN is a concept...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2021-07, Vol.13 (13), p.7055
Main Authors: Magalhães, Manuela R., Cunha, Natália S., Pena, Selma B., Müller, Ana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Case studies
Discontinuity
Fire damage
Fire prevention
Fire protection
Fires
Flame retardants
Flammability
Forest & brush fires
Indigenous species
Land use
Land use planning
Landscape architecture
Microclimate
Municipalities
Plant species
Resilience
River basins
Soil conservation
Soil water
Species composition
Sustainability
Water conservation
Wildland-urban interface
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Summary:This paper explores the role of landscape planning as a tool for rural fire prevention. It presents a methodology for a fire resilient and sustainable landscape model (FIRELAN) that articulates the ecological and cultural components in a suitable and multifunction land-use plan. FIRELAN is a conceptual and ecologically based model that recognizes river basin’ land morphology, microclimate and species combustibility as the fundamental factors that determine fire behavior and landscape resilience, along with the ecological network (EN) for achieving ecological sustainability of the landscape. The model is constituted by the FIRELAN Network and the Complementary Areas. This network ensures the effectiveness of discontinuities in the landscape with less combustible land-uses. It also functions as a fire-retardant technique and protection of wildland-urban interface (WUI). This model is applied to municipalities from Portugal’s center region, a simplified landscape severely damaged by recurrent rural fires. The results show that land-use and tree species composition should change drastically, whereas about 72% of the case study needs transformation actions. This requires a significant increase of native or archaeophytes species, agricultural areas, landscape discontinuities and the restoration of biodiversity in Natura 2000 areas. The EN components are 79% of the FIRELAN N area, whose implementation ensures soil and water conservation, biodiversity and habitats. This paper contributes to the discussion of the Portuguese rural fires planning framework.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13137055