Forest Fire Causes and Motivations in Southern and south-Eastern Europe through the Perception of Experts: Contribution to Enhance the Current Policies (original) (raw)
Related papers
Forest Fires in Europe: Facts and Challenges
Forest fires (term used in Europe to designate the unwanted fires burning forests and wild lands) constitute a serious problem for Europe. Frequently, Thought of almost exclusively as a problem for France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, this chapter introduces how fire is now a hazard that affects most of the European countries. Although, a sharp gradient exists from the South to the North, in terms of fire regime (e.g., contributing and causing factors, fire frequency and area burned, fire behavior), the problem is common; no country seems exempt. The chapter discusses how contemporary forest fire risk can only be understood from a historical perspective and how this risk is growing exponentially as a result of high and increasing population density and a creeping urban sprawl that is increasing the extent and complexity of the wildland urban interface. This chapter also discusses how significant changes in land-use patterns are conflicting with historical land use practices a...
The European Forest Fire Information System: A European strategy towards forest fire management
Natural fires are an integral part of Mediterranean ecosystems. However, in Europe, the extensive use of natural and forest regions as recreational areas has increased the number of human caused fires. Additionally, the decrease of rural population and abandonment of agricultural regions has led to the build up of fire fuels on these areas and the consequent increase in the number and the damage of forest fires. On average, fires in Europe burn 0.5 million hectares of forest areas every year. Although the number of fires has been steadily increasing in the last decade, the area burnt by fires has not increased. This increase in the number of fires has been accompanied by a decrease in the mean burnt area due to the improvements in infrastructure and means to extinguish them. Traditionally, fire fighting was carried out by local administrations, which extinguished fires in the surrounding areas. However, as limited and expensive resources became available, these were often administer...
Analysis of the Forest Fires in the Konjic Municipality in the Period of 2009 - 2013 Year
Radovi Šumarskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Sarajevu, 2016
UDK: 630*43(497.6 Konjic)“2009/2013“ Forests as one of the largest renewable sources in nature, are extremely important for human survival. They cover about a quarter of the Earth's surface and are the lungs of all living beings. Rapid technological development has significantly improved the life of a man, but also made a great contribution to the destruction of the natural balance, and reducing biodiversity. They represent a significant social wealth not only by producing precious and for its quality values in many ways irreplaceable wood material, edible and medicinal plants, but also because its existence is a very positive impact on the protection and improvement of the environment, regulation of climate and water regime, reducing damage from erosion, flood and spate, development of recreation, tourism, hunting and many other economic activities. Fires are one of the strongest and most dangerous agents that man were served in suppressing forest since ancient times, but unfor...
Most countries of Mediterranean Europe are strongly affected by forest fires, with major socioeconomic and environmental impacts that can spread over several regions and countries. A transnational approach allows creating synergies regarding resource sharing and problem-solving strategies. The access to high quality and up-to-date information is critical to improve fire hazard mitigation measures and promote comparable appraisals between different regions. Several collaborative initiatives have been implemented in Europe to foster research and service development, focusing on common issues amongst countries. The PREFER project was one of these initiatives, with the purpose of contributing to protect human communities and forests from fire hazard, by providing cartographic products through the implementation of a new systematic framework. The participation of end users, such as civil protection organizations and forest services, covering the Euro-Mediterranean region, was crucial to ensure the operational application of the mapping products. Fuel classification, daily fire hazard indices, vulnerability assessment and damage severity levels were some of the mapping applications developed for several test areas in Mediterranean Europe. This chapter illustrates the potential enhancements for forest fire management offered by this framework, bearing in mind the benefits of applying shared and harmonized approaches for common issues.