A Review of the Main Driving Factors of Forest Fire Ignition Over Europe

Ganteaume, Anne; Camia, Andrea; Jappiot, Marielle; San-Miguel-Ayanz, Jesús; Long-Fournel, M.; Lampin, C.

doi:10.1007/s00267-012-9961-z

Cited by 437 publications

(265 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Over the 2003-2012 period, the figure shows that on average, the number of fires associated with HWM is slightly larger than the number of fires associated with WFM. HWM (Le Houérou, 1987;Silva et al, 2010;Ganteaume et al, 2013). Figure 6 shows the time sequences of the composites over the Iberian Peninsula of the 500-hPa geopotential height anomaly for HWM and WFM wildfires.…”

Section: Fire and Weather Driversmentioning

confidence: 99%

How much does weather control fire size and intensity in the Mediterranean region?

2015

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Abstract. This study investigates the synoptic conditions favorable to wildfires in the Mediterranean region, in terms of fire intensity and burnt area. As reported in the literature, Mediterranean large wildfires are associated with a blocking situation. However, this study shows the existence of two types of wildfires controlled by the blocking high intensity: (1) fast build-up of a weak blocking produces intense wildfires associated with strong winds which allow propagation over long distances; (2) longer build-up of strong blocking situation produces less intense wildfires associated with weaker winds which also propagate over long distances. Another major step forward of this study in the understanding of the drivers of those wildfires is the evidence of a perfect match between the period of wildfire activity and the persistence of the favorable synoptic conditions: the wildfire activity starts at the onset of the blocking situation and ends with the transition to a less favorable synoptic weather pattern. Such strong control of the wildfire activity by the concomitant weather is a very promising result regarding fire risk management, especially considering the accidental nature of the Mediterranean wildfires.

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Section: Fire and Weather Driversmentioning

confidence: 99%

How much does weather control fire size and intensity in the Mediterranean region?

2015

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“…Weather conditions favourable to fire occur mainly in summer (Albertson et al 2009;Badia et al 2011;Ager et al 2014), but also happen at other times of the year when fuels are dry, such as early or late winter in some regions (Maingi and Henry 2007;Reineking et al 2010;Zhang et al 2010). In Europe (Reineking et al 2010;Ganteaume et al 2013), for example, fires have two well-defined peaks, one higher in summer, and another lower in winter. These peaks may be associated with specific fire causes, such as arson, agricultural burnings and accidental fires, which are more frequent in summer (Ganteaume et al 2013), and fires caused by shrub removal for regenerating pastures and feeding livestock in winter and early spring (DeWilde and Chapin 2006).…”

Section: Predictors For Long-term Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Europe (Reineking et al 2010;Ganteaume et al 2013), for example, fires have two well-defined peaks, one higher in summer, and another lower in winter. These peaks may be associated with specific fire causes, such as arson, agricultural burnings and accidental fires, which are more frequent in summer (Ganteaume et al 2013), and fires caused by shrub removal for regenerating pastures and feeding livestock in winter and early spring (DeWilde and Chapin 2006). Nevertheless, in most long-term models, weather-climate variables (177 variables) are less important than spatial variables linked to human patterns of landscape use (230 land-use and interface variables and 288 related to access, population and infrastructure in 134 models).…”

Section: Predictors For Long-term Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human-caused fire occurrence modelling in perspective: a review

Costafreda-Aumedes

Comas

Vega‐García

2017

Int. J. Wildland Fire

120

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Abstract. The increasing global concern about wildfires, mostly caused by people, has triggered the development of human-caused fire occurrence models in many countries. The premise is that better knowledge of the underlying factors is critical for many fire management purposes, such as operational decision-making in suppression and strategic prevention planning, or guidance on forest and land-use policies. However, the explanatory and predictive capacity of fire occurrence models is not yet widely applied to the management of forests, fires or emergencies. In this article, we analyse the developments in the field of human-caused fire occurrence modelling with the aim of identifying the most appropriate variables and methods for applications in forest and fire management and civil protection. We stratify our worldwide analysis by temporal dimension (short-term and long-term) and by model output (numeric or binary), and discuss management applications. An attempt to perform a meta-analysis based on published models proved limited because of non-equivalence of the metrics and units of the estimators and outcomes across studies, the diversity of models and the lack of information in published works.

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“…Portugal stands out from this group of countries since it counts the highest number of wildfires and has been the third-most affected country in terms of BA in the last three decades San-Miguel-Ayanz et al, 2016). On average, about 95 % of wildfires with known causes in Europe during the period 1995 to 2010 (corresponding to about 70 % of the total number of recorded events) were associated with human activities (Ganteaume et al, 2013). Only a small percentage M. Tonini et al: Global assessment of rural-urban interface in Portugal of wildfires (e.g., 1 % in Portugal and 5 % in Spain) were naturally caused by lighting (Mateus and Fernandes, 2014;Vilar et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global assessment of rural–urban interface in Portugal related to land cover changes

Tonini

Parente

Pereira

2018

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The rural-urban interface (RUI), known as the area where structures and other human developments meet or intermingle with wildland and rural area, is at present a central focus of wildfire policy and its mapping is crucial for wildfire management. In the Mediterranean Basin, humans cause the vast majority of fires and fire risk is particularly high in the proximity of infrastructure and of rural/wildland areas. RUI's extension changes under the pressure of environmental and anthropogenic factors, such as urban growth, fragmentation of rural areas, deforestation and, more in general, land use/land cover change (LULCC). As with other Mediterranean countries, Portugal has experienced significant LULCC in the last decades in response to migration, rural abandonment, ageing of population and trends associated with the high socioeconomic development. In the present study, we analyzed the LULCC occurring in this country in the 1990-2012 period with the main objective of investigating how these changes affected RUI's evolution. Moreover, we performed a qualitative and quantitative characterization of burnt areas within the RUI in relation to the observed changes. Obtained results disclose important LULCC and reveal their spatial distribution, which is far from uniform within the territory. A significant increase in artificial surfaces was registered near the main metropolitan communities of the northwest, littoral-central and southern regions, whilst the abandonment of agricultural land near the inland urban areas led to an increase in uncultivated semi-natural and forest areas. Within agricultural areas, heterogeneous patches suffered the greatest changes and were the main contributors to the increase in urban areas; moreover, this land cover class, together with forests, was highly affected by wildfires in terms of burnt area. Finally, from this analysis and during the investigated period, it appears that RUI increased in Portugal by more than two-thirds, while the total burnt area decreased by one-third; nevertheless, burnt area within RUI doubled, which emphasizes the significance of RUI monitoring for land and fire managers.

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A Review of the Main Driving Factors of Forest Fire Ignition Over Europe

Cited by 437 publications

References 81 publications

How much does weather control fire size and intensity in the Mediterranean region?

How much does weather control fire size and intensity in the Mediterranean region?

Human-caused fire occurrence modelling in perspective: a review

Global assessment of rural–urban interface in Portugal related to land cover changes

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