Modelling fire hazard in the southern Mediterranean fire rim (Bejaia region, northern Algeria)

Aini, Aissa; Curt, Thomas; Bekdouche, Farid

doi:10.1007/s10661-019-7931-0

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Humans play a major role in fire activity of the MB since they manage the land covers in the landscape, they burn them selectively, because they generate unwanted, accidental or intentional ignitions at the vicinity of their activities (e.g., roads, houses, power lines, aso), and because they also suppress fires [7,25]. In Algeria as in most of the MB, ignitions are frequent in wildland and near wildland-urban interfaces.…”

Section: Fire Causes and Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, [15] have shown that the most fire-prone areas covered with forests and shrublands are due to deliberate ignitions in order to clear vegetation to urbanize. Politically motivated fires are frequent in forest massifs [7,15]. In agricultural lands and groves, people ignite most fires on purpose for clearing the vegetation and burning the residues of agriculture.…”

Section: Fire Causes and Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Algerian forests are home to many species and protected areas [14], and they provide many goods and services to the population [16]. However, they burn frequently due to increased urban sprawl and density [7]. In spite of recent efforts to improve the protection of forests against fire [15], the suppression capacity remains limited.…”

Section: Implication For Fire Risk Management In the Long-termmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, if the scientific literature has produced a considerable amount of knowledge and models dealing with wildfires of the northern rim of the MB [2][3][4], wildfire issues remained largely disregarded in the southern part [5]. Despite recent progress in the investigation of fire causes [6], fire science and policy in Algeria still lack operational models explaining the drivers of fire occurrence [7]. In addition, fire databases are not always managed in a relevant manner [5,6], and fire danger indices are not used to assess the daily fire hazard across the country.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, fire databases are not always managed in a relevant manner [5,6], and fire danger indices are not used to assess the daily fire hazard across the country. All these approaches may support the currently lacking decision-making and the fire suppression capacity, bringing the sustainability and the current forest policy into question [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire Activity in Mediterranean Forests (The Algerian Case)

Curt

Aini

Dupire

2020

Fire

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Algeria has high wildfire activity, albeit restricted to the northern coastal fringe. However, no study has investigated why fire is restricted to that area, and what combination of factors explains the occurrence of wildfires. Here, we describe the current fire regime of Northern Algeria from 2000 to 2019 and we correlate fire activity to a range of environmental and anthropic drivers. We found a strong north–south gradient in fire occurrence: it is maximal in the high-fueled (productive) oak forests of Northern Algeria with high annual rainfall amount, whereas it is fuel-limited in the South due to semi-arid conditions. We determined that fire is nearly absent where the bioclimate is subarid or arid, due to the steppic vegetation with summer Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values below 0.35. Therefore, fire occupies a narrow niche in space (the humid and subhumid areas with high productivity) and in time as most fires occur in summer after the high rainfalls from fall to spring that promote fuel growth. Humans also play a role as fire hotspots are concentrated in croplands and in built-up areas with high human density and infrastructures mixed with shrublands and forests. We discuss how the ongoing climate changes and the desertification progressing towards the North of Algeria may finally restrict forests to a narrow fringe providing less and less ecological services to the Algerian people.

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Section: Fire Causes and Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fire Causes and Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implication For Fire Risk Management In the Long-termmentioning

confidence: 99%