Toward Wildfire Alternatives

Abstract

Wildfires are widely viewed as key evolving inputs of Mediterranean ecosystem. But anthropogenic climate changes and other socioecological recessions have transformed normal wildfire into megafire, especially under the intensifying challenges posed by agricultural abandonment and the rapid growth of tourism. So that the paradigm shift is needed since the suppression capacity has been increasingly overcome from the fire department. This research is aiming to integrate diverse landscape dynamics and fire regimes, to interpret the interactions between them and identify a series of heterogeneous fire typologies in the Mediterranean region (EU part) in order to support the application of landscape-based approaches. By classifying the land system dynamics into meteorologic, physiographic, biological and anthropogenic indicators (in relation with wildfire ignition and propagation), geographic information system based approaches and statistic analysis are applied to create diagnostic mappings.

The output of this analysis reveals several fire-landscape typologies and their spatial distribution in the Mediterranean, which improves the understanding of land system with natural crisis and is a basis for assessment of future changes under the regional climate, land use and land cover change and changes in management intensity. It also provides a evaluation and decision support tool in some specific locations for fire management, biodiversity protection and conservation of landscape values.

Thus, the downscale works of analysis are still needed for bridging the disconnection between the gap between Mediterranean research and landscape design practice. The prospective use cases must additionally account for the geopolitical and socio-cultural context of the region in question, as a means of establishing an integrated framework for fire management.

To advance the design perspective for mitigating the risks posed by wildfires, several key steps must be taken. Firstly, a toolkit must be developed based on defined fire-landscape typologies. These typologies represent landscape-based approaches that are tailored to the unique characteristics of each type of landscape. The toolkit will provide a range of strategies and design solutions for mitigating the risks of wildfires across different landscapes.

To apply these strategies in real-world scenarios, two key locations have been selected in the Iberian peninsula, namely northern Coimbra District (Portugal) and Marina Alta (a coastal comarca of the autonomous community of Valencia, Spain). These locations are identified as an interface with agricultural abandonment, and a dense littoralised tourism place, respectively, and are all typical fire-prone areas. By integrating the local context of each location with the selected approaches from the toolkit, resilient and adaptive scenarios for wildfire risk can be created. The design actions taken in these representative areas can subsequently be expanded and reproduced across a broad Mediterranean region. This approach allows for a comprehensive and effective mitigation of wildfire risks across a large geographic area while considering the unique characteristics and challenges of each landscape. The combination of landscape-based approaches with cultural and political context facilitates the development and implementation of effective strategies to mitigate the risks of wildfires and protect communities and ecosystems.