Characterization of wildfires in Portugal

Forest fires severity has increased in Portugal in the last decades. Climate change scenarios suggest the reinforcement of this severity. Forest ecosystem managers and policy-makers thus face the challenge of developing effective fire prevention policies. The characterization of forest fires is inst...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of forest research 2011-09, Vol.130 (5), p.775-784
Main Authors: Marques, S., Borges, J. G., Garcia-Gonzalo, J., Moreira, F., Carreiras, J. M. B., Oliveira, M. M., Cantarinha, A., Botequim, B., Pereira, J. M. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate change
Ecosystem management
Fire prevention
Forest & brush fires
Forest ecosystems
Forest fires
Forest management
Forestry
Geographic information systems
Land use
Life Sciences
Original Paper
Plant Ecology
Plant Sciences
Remote sensing
Socioeconomics
Statistical analysis
Wildfires
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Summary:Forest fires severity has increased in Portugal in the last decades. Climate change scenarios suggest the reinforcement of this severity. Forest ecosystem managers and policy-makers thus face the challenge of developing effective fire prevention policies. The characterization of forest fires is instrumental for meeting this challenge. An approach for characterizing fire occurrence in Portugal, combining the use of geographic information systems and statistical analysis techniques, is presented. Emphasis was on the relationships between ecological and socioeconomic features and fire occurrence. The number and sizes of wildfires in Portugal were assessed for three 5-year periods (1987–1991, 1990–1994, and 2000–2004). Features maps were overlaid with perimeters of forest fires, and the proportion of burned area for each period was modeled using weighted generalized linear models (WGLM). Descriptive statistics showed variations in the distribution of fire size over recent decades, with a significant increase in the number of very large fires. Modeling underlined the impact of the forest cover type on the proportion of area burned. The statistical analysis further showed that socioeconomic features such as the proximity to roads impact the probability of fires occurrence. Results suggest that this approach may provide insight needed to develop fire prevention policies.
ISSN:1612-4669
1612-4677
DOI:10.1007/s10342-010-0470-4