Differences of fire activity and their underlying factors among vegetation formations in Greece

Xystrakis, Fotios; Koutsias, Nikos

doi:10.3832/ifor0837-006

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Indeed, the presence of Juniperus oxycedrus (prickly juniper) in the shrub layer of such community indicates site degradation due to anthropogenic activities. Wildfires are common in the thermo-and meso-mediterranean zones, sometimes reaching the lower part of the fir forest zone (Koutsias et al 2012, Xystrakis & Koutsias 2013. Grazing by sheep and goats is a common practice in the study area.…”

Section: Synecology Of the Greek Fir Forestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought effects on the floristic differentiation of Greek fir forests in the mountains of central Greece

Samaras¹,

Gaertner²,

Reif³

et al. 2015

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Section: Synecology Of the Greek Fir Forestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought effects on the floristic differentiation of Greek fir forests in the mountains of central Greece

Samaras¹,

Gaertner²,

Reif³

et al. 2015

iForest

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“…There are many factors influencing fire occurrence in forests in terms of fire ignition and fire behavior, including climate, vegetation (or land cover), topography, human activity [32], and soil texture [11,33]. Climate is surely one of the main agents responsible for fire ignition, while mean annual temperature and precipitation were commonly used as climatic variables for fire regimes as they are the main parameters that control fuel moisture content and the general characteristics of climate conditions [32,34]. Indeed, an important variation of air temperature can affect the severity and frequency of forest fire and, together with the modification of soil moisture induced by rainfall variation [35], can further change the fire behavior.…”

Section: Factors Influencing Fire Ignition and Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impacts of slope are mainly related to the fire behavior, while aspect and elevation mainly affect ignition. Climate, instead, is considered a key cause of fire triggering [34,69]. Temperature and precipitation are mainly responsible of fire ignition.…”

Section: Forest Fire Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Hybrid GIS and AHP Approach for Modelling Actual and Future Forest Fire Risk Under Climate Change Accounting Water Resources Attenuation Role

et al. 2019

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Forest wildfires usually occur due to natural processes such as lightning and volcanic eruptions, but at the same time they are also an effect of uncontrolled and illegal anthropogenic activities. Different factors can influence forest wildfires, like the type of vegetation, morphology, climate, and proximity to human activities. A precise evaluation of forest fire issues and of the countermeasures needed to limit their impact could be satisfactory especially when forest fire risk (FFR) mapping is available. Here, we proposed an FFR evaluation methodology based on Geographic Information System (GIS) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The study area is the Campania region (Southern Italy) that, for the last 30 years, has been affected by numerous wildfires. The proposed methodology analyzed 12 factors, and AHP was used for weight assignment, offering a new approach to some parameters. The method divided the study area into five risk classes, from very low to very high. Validation with fire alerts showed a good correlation between observed and predicted fires (0.79 R2). Analyzing the climate projections, a future FFR for 2040 was also assessed. The proposed methodology represents a reliable screening tool to identify areas under forest fire risk, and can help authorities to direct preventive actions.

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“…Most of these approaches, however, are applied at local or regional scales, due to limitations and constraints found when gathering and updating the required geospatial data. In addition, since the relationships between these factors and fire occurrence can vary between different ecosystems and across different spatial and temporal scales (Catry et al 2009, Xystrakis & Koutsias 2013, different dominant fire risk drivers are identified depending on the local conditions of each study. Therefore, there are limitations to extrapolate the findings from one region to another or to generalize the results from local to global scales by combining the findings from different studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire occurrence zoning from local to global scale in the European Mediterranean basin: implications for multi-scale fire management and policy

Koutsias¹,

Allgöwer²,

Kalabokidis³

et al. 2016

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This study proposes and evaluates a relatively new concept for fire occurrence zoning based on documented historical fire records. The proposed method creates continuous kernel density surfaces based on wildland fire ignition observations. Kernels have the advantage of directly producing density estimates that are not influenced by grid size or localization effects. Within this scheme, kernel density surfaces have been created and reclassified to construct fire occurrence zones at local to global scales in the Mediterranean Basin. Specifically, fire occurrence zones were created for the European scale (European Mediterranean Basin), national scale (Greece), regional scale (Peloponnese, Greece) and local scale (Chalkidiki, Greece). To evaluate fire occurrence zones, we compared the observed with the expected distribution of the number of fires within these zones using a Monte Carlo randomization test, finding that these numbers were statistically different in all cases. The deviations observed from the expected distributions towards the high occurrence zone indicated their successful assessment and value. In this paper, we further discuss their potential role and use for multi-scale fire management and policy in a European context.

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Differences of fire activity and their underlying factors among vegetation formations in Greece

Cited by 14 publications

References 52 publications

Drought effects on the floristic differentiation of Greek fir forests in the mountains of central Greece

Drought effects on the floristic differentiation of Greek fir forests in the mountains of central Greece

A Hybrid GIS and AHP Approach for Modelling Actual and Future Forest Fire Risk Under Climate Change Accounting Water Resources Attenuation Role

Fire occurrence zoning from local to global scale in the European Mediterranean basin: implications for multi-scale fire management and policy

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