Periodic Reporting for period 3 - FirEUrisk (FIREURISK - DEVELOPING A HOLISTIC, RISK-WISE STRATEGY FOR EUROPEAN WILDFIRE MANAGEMENT)
Período documentado: 2024-04-01 hasta 2025-03-31
Wildfires are an increasing threat that affect almost a third of the global landmass, are now occurring in new areas, and are becoming more extreme and more frequent in many locations where fires have long been common. The FirEUrisk project was designed to improve the protection of populations, their assets, and the environment in Europe from extreme fires.
FirEUrisk aimed to develop a science-based and risk-wise strategy, which integrated practices and policies of wildfire prevention, suppression, and adaptation into a holistic conceptual framework. FirEUrisk project also delivered innovative risk-informed regional planning approaches that effectively increase local communities' resilience, improving their safety and overall welfare while mitigating the consequences of wildfires. Its approaches were tested in demonstration areas (DA) across 17 European countries. The project’s innovative solutions were showcased in five Pilot Sites (PS), covering different fire conditions (3 in the Mediterranean, 1 in Central, and 1 in Northern Europe), or the entire European Territory (ET).
A key output of FirEUrisk is an Integrated Fire Risk Assessment Strategy, which builds on critical variables used to calculate fire risk. In addition, numerous tools and products were developed and disseminated through scientific publications, stakeholder workshops, social networks and the FirEUrisk website.
FirEUrisk aimed to develop a science-based and risk-wise strategy, which integrated practices and policies of wildfire prevention, suppression, and adaptation into a holistic conceptual framework. FirEUrisk project also delivered innovative risk-informed regional planning approaches that effectively increase local communities' resilience, improving their safety and overall welfare while mitigating the consequences of wildfires. Its approaches were tested in demonstration areas (DA) across 17 European countries. The project’s innovative solutions were showcased in five Pilot Sites (PS), covering different fire conditions (3 in the Mediterranean, 1 in Central, and 1 in Northern Europe), or the entire European Territory (ET).
A key output of FirEUrisk is an Integrated Fire Risk Assessment Strategy, which builds on critical variables used to calculate fire risk. In addition, numerous tools and products were developed and disseminated through scientific publications, stakeholder workshops, social networks and the FirEUrisk website.
We focused on assessing current fire risk conditions. Several products were developed and showcased in several PS, including a mobile application to help citizens improve their awareness of fire risk conditions and enlist their help in characterizing ground fuels and fire outbreaks. Maps at ET or PS scale, for fuel, fire line intensity, live fuel moisture content, and ecosystem services and values, among many other products are presented in deliverable D5.12.
We explored risk reduction strategies with a focus on extreme fires. This included reduction of human caused ignitions through improved citizen awareness and education, and the impacts of prescribed burning on fuel flammability. Other outputs are ET-scale mapping of the suitable areas to adopt each land-management strategy, evaluation of processes associated with extreme fire behaviour, guidelines to improve the training of firefighters in the management of large fires, as well as reports on large fires in 2021 and 2022 produced in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
We researched on adaptation, producing future climate and socioeconomic scenarios, to predict the future fire situation in the EU, and maps were created based on key scenarios. Several other products were developed, which are also listed in D5.12.
The integration of the project outcomes was a major effort throughout the Project. It included managing the FirEUrisk Observatory, a group formed by European experts and managers that provided advice for the project development. The conceptual integration of the project was completed for the risk assessment activities, which were the backbone of FirEUrisk project, and critical for the overall fire risk assessment framework and complementary developments. In addition, FirEUrisk developed an Open Platform to share data and products as well as a Display Viewer to facilitate its use by end-users. Lastly, a Roadmap for an integrated fire risk management strategy for Europe was proposed and is being further developed together with other EU fire-related projects from the Green Deal call. The integration scheme has identified the need to enlarge the model to integrate fire risks with other non-fire hazards
Several demonstration events were held in Spain, Portugal, Central Europe, Sweden, and Greece, as well as one devoted to the ET territory held with pertinent stakeholders from EFFIS/JRC. These events were an opportunity to co-develop FirEUrisk products with relevant end-users. Sixty-two products are now available, structured in three service portfolios adjusted to the territorial scale.
More than a dozen webinars were held on relevant topics: fire risk, reduction strategies, data management, future fire regimes, biodiversity, and past fires. In addition, several training courses were organized in relevant topics like fuel mapping, and decision support tools. Communication activities included a wide range of actions and tools: logos, templates, booklets, web pages, infographics, a motion graphic animation and a final video, as well as social media: the X account, LinkedIn, and press activities with great numbers achieved.
Policy Briefs were produced on “Advancing wildfire management in a climate change context: A call for Integration of Holistic Ecosystem and Landscape Management Frameworks in EU Policies” and “Policy Brief on shifting to a holistic approach in the national wildfire management country: Italy”.
Collaboration with the EC project Firelogue and the Innovation Actions was carried out, and several dissemination initiatives were held - #EUFireProjectsUnited.
We explored risk reduction strategies with a focus on extreme fires. This included reduction of human caused ignitions through improved citizen awareness and education, and the impacts of prescribed burning on fuel flammability. Other outputs are ET-scale mapping of the suitable areas to adopt each land-management strategy, evaluation of processes associated with extreme fire behaviour, guidelines to improve the training of firefighters in the management of large fires, as well as reports on large fires in 2021 and 2022 produced in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
We researched on adaptation, producing future climate and socioeconomic scenarios, to predict the future fire situation in the EU, and maps were created based on key scenarios. Several other products were developed, which are also listed in D5.12.
The integration of the project outcomes was a major effort throughout the Project. It included managing the FirEUrisk Observatory, a group formed by European experts and managers that provided advice for the project development. The conceptual integration of the project was completed for the risk assessment activities, which were the backbone of FirEUrisk project, and critical for the overall fire risk assessment framework and complementary developments. In addition, FirEUrisk developed an Open Platform to share data and products as well as a Display Viewer to facilitate its use by end-users. Lastly, a Roadmap for an integrated fire risk management strategy for Europe was proposed and is being further developed together with other EU fire-related projects from the Green Deal call. The integration scheme has identified the need to enlarge the model to integrate fire risks with other non-fire hazards
Several demonstration events were held in Spain, Portugal, Central Europe, Sweden, and Greece, as well as one devoted to the ET territory held with pertinent stakeholders from EFFIS/JRC. These events were an opportunity to co-develop FirEUrisk products with relevant end-users. Sixty-two products are now available, structured in three service portfolios adjusted to the territorial scale.
More than a dozen webinars were held on relevant topics: fire risk, reduction strategies, data management, future fire regimes, biodiversity, and past fires. In addition, several training courses were organized in relevant topics like fuel mapping, and decision support tools. Communication activities included a wide range of actions and tools: logos, templates, booklets, web pages, infographics, a motion graphic animation and a final video, as well as social media: the X account, LinkedIn, and press activities with great numbers achieved.
Policy Briefs were produced on “Advancing wildfire management in a climate change context: A call for Integration of Holistic Ecosystem and Landscape Management Frameworks in EU Policies” and “Policy Brief on shifting to a holistic approach in the national wildfire management country: Italy”.
Collaboration with the EC project Firelogue and the Innovation Actions was carried out, and several dissemination initiatives were held - #EUFireProjectsUnited.
FirEUrisk delivered innovative products and datasets, which are available at: the FirEUrisk webpage, FirEUrisk WIKI, FirEUrisk Open Platform and FirEUrisk Viewer, and published more than 70 scientific papers. Here we highlight some of the key outputs:
· A hierarchical, scale-independent and multipurpose fuel classification system. Generation of a fuel map of the ET at 1 km2. This product and those derived for the PS at 1 ha resolution used this classification.
· A fire ignition probability model at ET and PS scales, based on human and biophysical variables. Numerous datasets of explanatory factors were obtained from available sources.
· An in-depth review of land use management strategies to reduce fire risk was performed and their application throughout the ET in present and future conditions were assessed (D2.3 and D2.4).
· The finding that dynamic evolution of wildfires, namely of very large fires, is an oscillatory and intermittent process.
· A comprehensive characterisation of extreme fires occurring in different European countries, aimed to formalise mega-fires analysis. Data and information were collected from areas/countries that faced extreme fires in the summer of 2021 and 2022.
· An improved proposal for an integrated fire risk scheme in Europe, built on previous works, based on the main components of FirEUrisk and of testing them in dedicated PSs.
· A conceptual scientific strategy and roadmap for a framework for the integrated management of wildfires were proposed, also considering previous work done by several institutions in Europe and elsewhere (D4.4 and D4.5).
· An assessment of the European fire regimes and of the ecological effects of the intensification of fire regimes.
· A hierarchical, scale-independent and multipurpose fuel classification system. Generation of a fuel map of the ET at 1 km2. This product and those derived for the PS at 1 ha resolution used this classification.
· A fire ignition probability model at ET and PS scales, based on human and biophysical variables. Numerous datasets of explanatory factors were obtained from available sources.
· An in-depth review of land use management strategies to reduce fire risk was performed and their application throughout the ET in present and future conditions were assessed (D2.3 and D2.4).
· The finding that dynamic evolution of wildfires, namely of very large fires, is an oscillatory and intermittent process.
· A comprehensive characterisation of extreme fires occurring in different European countries, aimed to formalise mega-fires analysis. Data and information were collected from areas/countries that faced extreme fires in the summer of 2021 and 2022.
· An improved proposal for an integrated fire risk scheme in Europe, built on previous works, based on the main components of FirEUrisk and of testing them in dedicated PSs.
· A conceptual scientific strategy and roadmap for a framework for the integrated management of wildfires were proposed, also considering previous work done by several institutions in Europe and elsewhere (D4.4 and D4.5).
· An assessment of the European fire regimes and of the ecological effects of the intensification of fire regimes.