CASE STUDIES
The test sites were selected in South and North geographical region.
Pilot Areas
SERV_FORFIRE Joint Activities will take place in Pilot Areas which have been selected by the partners as more appropriate for this action.
A template has been created and filled in by the partners for the Pilot Areas which includes information about the responsible partner, the proposed activities, the availability and characteristics of the data sets and descriptive information, necessary for the organization of common activities.
The first version of the completed Pilot Areas Templates are presented below:
Finland
Eastern Finland
Greece
Eastern Attika
Italy
Basilicata Region
Italy
Tuscany region
Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Responsible Partner : FMI / Finland
Eastern Finland / Finland
Description of the Pilot Area
The pilot area selected is located in eastern Finland and has a large amount of information available on the vegetation with 20 m spatial resolution. The data is produced with laser scanning technique.
There has not been major forest fire registered in the area.
Additional information is available on wind damage occurred in the area.
The seasonal fire risk outlooks will be first tested with the stakeholders on the pilot area; following the tests those will be extended for the whole Finland.
Proposed Joint activities
- Seasonalfireriskforecast: extended range and long range forecast
Responsible Partner: NCSRD / Greece
Eastern Attika/Greece
Description of the Pilot Area
Attika region includes the cities of Athens and Piraeus and is characterized by a relatively complex terrain. The urban area (Athens basin) is surrounded by mountains on the three sides, while on the fourth side there is a major opening to the sea in the southwest (the Saronic Gulf). The three main mountains are Hymettus (1050 m) to the East, Penteli (1100 m) to the North and Parnitha (1400 m) to the North. These mountains with only small gaps between them along with numerous hills located downtown Athens play an important role on the modification of the flow in the area. The Korinthian Gulf (to the west of Athens basin) is surrounded by high mountains both to the north and to the south, which under specific conditions can result in a channeling of the flow towards the Saronic Gulf. The study area selected for SERV_FORFIRE Joint Activities is the eastern part of Attika which includes Hymettus and Penteli mountains.
During the last 30 years the study area has been under rapid urban development and in many cases this urban expansion remains unplanned. Based on demographic data for the eastern Attica region a significant increase in the population of the area at the main settlements has been recorded. The increase in Pikermi community is estimated at 419% from 1971 to 2007, while the increase in the population of Drafi and Rafina communities, for the period between 1971 and 2001, is estimated at 79% and 38% respectively. Furthermore, large scale public works are being constructed in the area especially during the last decade and this has contributed to a significant increase in the private building activity. These works include the construction of the new national airport of Athens in Spata, the construction of major roads, such as the Attiki highway, which connect the southeast Attiki area with the rest of the Prefecture and the business centre of Athens, and the developing Rafina port. During the last 15 years the northern part of the area has experienced large scale forest fires, including the ones of 1995, 1998 and 2009, which apart form the ecological degradation of the region, resulted in the progressive conversion of large forest areas to burnt land.
As a result of the extensive wildfires the affected area is at a great extent vulnerable to post-fire events including floods and erosion.
Proposed Joint activities
- Fire simulations , G-FMIS simulator
- Seasonal FWI estimation
- Post fire erosion
Responsible Partner : CNR-IMAA / Italy
Area Basilicata region / South of italy
Description of the Pilot Area
It is located in the South of Italy and borders on Puglia to the north and east, Campania to the west and Calabria to the south having short south-western coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea and a longer one to the southeast on the Ionian Sea. Basilicata has two provinces: Potenza and Matera. The regional capital is the city of Potenza. It covers 9,992 km² and is one of the most sparsely populated regions of Italy (approximately 587.517 inhabitants)
It is a mountainous region with around 47% of its area covered by mountains, 45% is hilly and finally 8% is made up of plains. The climate is variable and strongly influenced by three coastlines (Adriatic, Ionian and Tyrrhenian) as well as by the complexity of the region’s physical features. Basilicata
The climate is continental in the mountains and Mediterranean along the coasts. Approximately 35% of the total surface is covered with forest vegetation (mainly Oak woods, Beech woods, Mediterranean maquis, Mixed broadleaf and/or coniferous woods, Mediterranean scrubs). Prairies, bushes and cultivated soil cover approximately 45% of the territory. Between 2001 and 2008 in Basilicata region fire affected more than 20.000 ha (forest and non-forest) with 1900 fires generally less than to 10 ha.
Several national and regional parks are located in the Basilicata : the Pollino National Park, the Gallipoli Cognato Regional Park, the Lucanian Dolomites and the Natural History and Archaeological Park of Murgia, close toMatera and listed in the UNESCO site along with the SASSI (form both cultural and natural outstanding recognized heritage).
As a result of the extensive wildfires the affected area is at a great extent vulnerable to post-fire events including floods and erosion.
In particular the Analysis of extreme eventsasoccurred in summer 2017 in the Basilicata Region.
Around 100 inhabitants have been and still today are evacuated for the increasing risk landslide due to the fire occurrence and its effects on the slopes ans stone stability
For the whole Basilicata Region (South of Italy) that is characterized by small fires and a significantly high hydrological risk (one of the highest in Europe) CNR-IMAA will:
perform statistical analysis on the fire catalogues available for the region since 1998,
carry out the future fire occurrence projections that will be made focusing on the interface fires (urban-forest vegetated areas),fragmented ecosystems and mountain regions, with particular reference to the Pollino national park recently listed in the UNESCO Geopark (2016).
Perform simulations at local spatial level of wild fire behaviour under various different climatic scenarios using both FIRESA tools (developed by researchers of IMAA) and FIRESITE (developed by the USA USGS). This will support the study of the fire behaviour parameters/maps.
Proposed Joint activities
- Fire risk estimation at diverse temporal and spatial scales
- Fire simulation using FIRESITE simulator
- Post fire erosion
- Post fire risks (landslides, floodings)
- Post fire mitigitation actions
- Fire adaptation stategies
Estimation of changes in vegetation status will be made using different climatic scenarios and long term weather forecasts (weekly, monthly and seasonal).
Several well recognized satellite derived indicators will be adopted.Remote sensing data acquired from MODIS, LandSatTM ; Sentinel 1 and 2 will be also used for the development of ad hoc vegetation indices for the monitoring of landscape changes during post-fire restoration.
Analysis on Post-fire erosion and landslide hazard assessment by using historical landslide occurrence and magnitude data, rainfall conditions, terrain and soils information and burn-severity data from burned areas.
Integration with social factors and evaluation of economic damage will be performed.
Responsible Partner : CNR-IBIMET/ ITALY
Area | Tuscany region / Italy
Description of the Pilot Area
Tuscany is a geographically complex region of central Italy (Figure 1),with half of its territory covered by forests, and characterized by a rainfall regime influenced by latitude,distance from the sea and orography, and ranging from about 600 mm in the southern coastal area,to 2700–2800 mm in the northern part of the Apennines (reaching a height of almost 2000 m a.s.l.).
Proposed Joint activities
- Historical drought indices analysis comparison with other areas in Europe and in the Mediterranean basin;
- Seasonal forecast of drought indices evaluation produced by empirical and numerical models (Copernicus Climate Change Service) calibrated on Tuscany and other pilot study areas;
- Joint analysis of drought and ecosystem indices with FWI estimations, for a reference period.
Responsible Partner : CzechGlobe
Area | Czech Republic
Description of the Pilot Area
The pilot area includes the whole territory of the Czech Republic approximately 78,000 sq. km with
About 50% share of agricultural land and 34% of the forested areas.
Proposed Joint activities
- Collaboration on comparison of various metrics of the wildfire monitoring
- Evaluation of the short and medium term forecasting tools (1-10 days)
- Seasonal estimation of the wild fire risk
- Proposal of the good practice in the wildfire prone areas based on the more fire-prone countries of the SERV4FIRE project.
THE PROJECT
FUNDERS
