Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-scale wildland fire statistics across European countries, there is still a crucial need to collect and summarize in-depth local analysis and understanding of the wildland fire condition and associated challenges across Europe. This article aims to provide a general overview of the current wildland fire patterns and challenges as perceived by national representatives, supplemented by national fire statistics (2009–2018) across Europe. For each of the 31 countries included, we present a perspective authored by scientists or practitioners from each respective country, representing a wide range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds. The authors were selected from members of the COST Action “Fire and the Earth System: Science & Society” funded by the European Commission with the aim to share knowledge and improve communication about wildland fire. Where relevant, a brief overview of key studies, particular wildland fire challenges a country is facing, and an overview of notable recent fire events are also presented. Key perceived challenges included (1) the lack of consistent and detailed records for wildland fire events, within and across countries, (2) an increase in wildland fires that pose a risk to properties and human life due to high population densities and sprawl into forested regions, and (3) the view that, irrespective of changes in management, climate change is likely to increase the frequency and impact of wildland fires in the coming decades. Addressing challenge (1) will not only be valuable in advancing national and pan-European wildland fire management strategies, but also in evaluating perceptions (2) and (3) against more robust quantitative evidence.
A novel approach that borrows methods commonly used in environmental geophysics was developed for obtaining the estimates of the aquifer parameters. Specifically, estimates of hydraulic conductivity were obtained from field measurements of the electrical resistivity while accounting for the karsticity of the geological formations in the area of study. Geophysically determined hydraulic conductivity estimates were introduced to a 3-D groundwater numerical simulator (Princeton Transport Code -PTC) to compute the hydraulic heads distribution of the area of interest. The calibration of the numerical model was obtained matching the hydraulic-heads predicted by the simulator with the hydraulic-heads measured at specific well locations. Simulated hydraulic-heads were used with the Chyben-Herzberg equation to approximate the position of the sharp freshwater/saltwater interface of the base of the water supply aquifer. The existence of the faults impacts the groundwater flow and the distribution of the freshwater/saltwater interface.
ABSTRACT:Image processing techniques that involve multispectral remotely sensed data are considered attractive for bathymetry applications as they provide a time-and cost-effective solution to water depths estimation. In this paper the potential of 8-bands image acquired by Worldview-2 satellite in providing precise depth measurements was investigated. Multispectral image information was integrated with available echo sounding and GPS data for the determination of the depth in the area of interest. In particular the main objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of high spatial and spectral resolution of the new imagery data on water depth measurements using the Lyzenga linear bathymetry model. The existence of sea grass in a part of the study area influenced the linear relationship between water reflectance and depth. Therefore the bathymetric model was applied in three image parts: an area with sea grass, a mixed area and a sea grass-free area. In the last two areas the model worked successfully supported by the multiplicity of the imagery bands.
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