The increasing environmental and economic losses with climate and land use changes, along with the devastating loss of lives in recent extreme wildfires in Portugal, requires a shift in the paradigm of wildfire management.
Research-based information is crucial to support wildfire and forest management decisions and guide national policies aiming at reducing the impact of large wildfires.
An integrated fire management strategy requires research information in all its components: prevention, suppression and post-fire assessment to reduce landscape wildfire exposure, wildfire risk and impacts.
This site aims to be dynamic by integrating recent fire-related research and derived products that can be useful to support the wildfire management decision system. It shares the work developed by a multidisciplinary team that aims to stimulate the development of more and better applied research to reduce the future impacts of fire on society and the environment
AHEAD OF THE WILDFIRES
Portuguese wildfires are becoming bigger, more frequent and intense, having larger impacts and exceeding the suppression capacity more times than would be desired.
Rural abandonment associated with the decrease in agricultural and pastoral practices have led to the increase in fuel accumulation.
Also, the extensive, often monospecific and continuous forest areas, are factors that associated with climate change (particularly heat waves), promote the propagation and impact of such large and intense fires.
In Portugal, since the 1960’s the extensive land abandonment and afforestation, have led to a significant decrease in the agricultural and pastoral activities, which resulted in large changes in landscape configuration and composition.
The extensive, often monospecific and continuous areas of shrublands and unmanaged forests, have been leading to the increase in the fuel load, availability and contiguity.
When unusually severe meteorological conditions occur, this combination can jeopardize the fire suppression system, as we recently experienced in the tragic fire season of 2017.
The intensity of these large fires on vegetation and soils can last for several years, and have impacts such as soil degradation or water supply, demanding for urgent measures to guarantee the sustainability of those ecosystems.
From then on, fire management has gained relevance and visibility in the public and political discussion, leading to development of the National Integrated Fire Management Plan by AGIF, to be implemented from 2020 to 2030, aiming to reduce national-level wildfire exposure and risk
Upcoming Events
18 Nov. 2022
Workshop Mação – Data fusion of sensor networks and fire spread modelling for decision support in forest fire suppression
11 to 18 Nov. 2022
IX International Conference on Forest Fire Research & 17th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit