Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe

Forest fires are a serious environmental hazard in southern Europe. Quantitative assessment of recent trends in fire statistics is important for assessing the possible shifts induced by climate and other environmental/socioeconomic changes in this area. Here we analyse recent fire trends in Portugal...

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Autores: Turco, Marco, Bedia, Joaquín, Di Liberto, Fabrizio, Fiorucci, Paolo, Hardenberg, J. von, Koutsias, Nikos, Llasat Botija, María del Carmen, Xystrakis, Fotios, Provenzale, A. (Antonello)
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/104082
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/104082
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Incendis forestals
Mediterrània (Regió)
Prevenció d'incendis
Forest fires
Mediterranean Region
Fire prevention
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spelling Decreasing fires in Mediterranean EuropeTurco, MarcoBedia, JoaquínDi Liberto, FabrizioFiorucci, PaoloHardenberg, J. vonKoutsias, NikosLlasat Botija, María del CarmenXystrakis, FotiosProvenzale, A. (Antonello)Incendis forestalsMediterrània (Regió)Prevenció d'incendisForest firesMediterranean RegionFire preventionForest fires are a serious environmental hazard in southern Europe. Quantitative assessment of recent trends in fire statistics is important for assessing the possible shifts induced by climate and other environmental/socioeconomic changes in this area. Here we analyse recent fire trends in Portugal, Spain, southern France, Italy and Greece, building on a homogenized fire database integrating official fire statistics provided by several national/EU agencies. During the period 1985-2011, the total annual burned area (BA) displayed a general decreasing trend, with the exception of Portugal, where a heterogeneous signal was found. Considering all countries globally, we found that BA decreased by about 3020 km2 over the 27-year-long study period (i.e. about -66% of the mean historical value). These results are consistent with those obtained on longer time scales when data were available, also yielding predominantly negative trends in Spain and France (1974-2011) and a mixed trend in Portugal (1980-2011). Similar overall results were found for the annual number of fires (NF), which globally decreased by about 12600 in the study period (about -59%), except for Spain where, excluding the provinces along the Mediterranean coast, an upward trend was found for the longer period. We argue that the negative trends can be explained, at least in part, by an increased effort in fire management and prevention after the big fires of the 1980's, while positive trends may be related to recent socioeconomic transformations leading to more hazardous landscape configurations, as well as to the observed warming of recent decades. We stress the importance of fire data homogenization prior to analysis, in order to alleviate spurious effects associated with non-stationarities in the data due to temporal variations in fire detection efforts.Public Library of Science (PLoS)2016info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/104082Articles publicats en revistes (Física Aplicada)reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UBinstname:Universidad de BarcelonaInglésReproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150663PLoS One, 2016, vol. 11, num. 3, p. e0150663https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150663info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/641762cc-by (c) Turco, Marco et al., 2016http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/esinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/1040822026-05-27T06:46:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
title Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
spellingShingle Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
Turco, Marco
Incendis forestals
Mediterrània (Regió)
Prevenció d'incendis
Forest fires
Mediterranean Region
Fire prevention
title_short Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
title_full Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
title_fullStr Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
title_full_unstemmed Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
title_sort Decreasing fires in Mediterranean Europe
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Turco, Marco
Bedia, Joaquín
Di Liberto, Fabrizio
Fiorucci, Paolo
Hardenberg, J. von
Koutsias, Nikos
Llasat Botija, María del Carmen
Xystrakis, Fotios
Provenzale, A. (Antonello)
author Turco, Marco
author_facet Turco, Marco
Bedia, Joaquín
Di Liberto, Fabrizio
Fiorucci, Paolo
Hardenberg, J. von
Koutsias, Nikos
Llasat Botija, María del Carmen
Xystrakis, Fotios
Provenzale, A. (Antonello)
author_role author
author2 Bedia, Joaquín
Di Liberto, Fabrizio
Fiorucci, Paolo
Hardenberg, J. von
Koutsias, Nikos
Llasat Botija, María del Carmen
Xystrakis, Fotios
Provenzale, A. (Antonello)
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Incendis forestals
Mediterrània (Regió)
Prevenció d'incendis
Forest fires
Mediterranean Region
Fire prevention
topic Incendis forestals
Mediterrània (Regió)
Prevenció d'incendis
Forest fires
Mediterranean Region
Fire prevention
description Forest fires are a serious environmental hazard in southern Europe. Quantitative assessment of recent trends in fire statistics is important for assessing the possible shifts induced by climate and other environmental/socioeconomic changes in this area. Here we analyse recent fire trends in Portugal, Spain, southern France, Italy and Greece, building on a homogenized fire database integrating official fire statistics provided by several national/EU agencies. During the period 1985-2011, the total annual burned area (BA) displayed a general decreasing trend, with the exception of Portugal, where a heterogeneous signal was found. Considering all countries globally, we found that BA decreased by about 3020 km2 over the 27-year-long study period (i.e. about -66% of the mean historical value). These results are consistent with those obtained on longer time scales when data were available, also yielding predominantly negative trends in Spain and France (1974-2011) and a mixed trend in Portugal (1980-2011). Similar overall results were found for the annual number of fires (NF), which globally decreased by about 12600 in the study period (about -59%), except for Spain where, excluding the provinces along the Mediterranean coast, an upward trend was found for the longer period. We argue that the negative trends can be explained, at least in part, by an increased effort in fire management and prevention after the big fires of the 1980's, while positive trends may be related to recent socioeconomic transformations leading to more hazardous landscape configurations, as well as to the observed warming of recent decades. We stress the importance of fire data homogenization prior to analysis, in order to alleviate spurious effects associated with non-stationarities in the data due to temporal variations in fire detection efforts.
publishDate 2016
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2016
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2445/104082
url https://hdl.handle.net/2445/104082
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150663
PLoS One, 2016, vol. 11, num. 3, p. e0150663
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150663
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/641762
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by (c) Turco, Marco et al., 2016
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by (c) Turco, Marco et al., 2016
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science (PLoS)
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Articles publicats en revistes (Física Aplicada)
reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
instname:Universidad de Barcelona
instname_str Universidad de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de la UB
collection Dipòsit Digital de la UB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,301603

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