Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.

Despite the huge resources invested in fire suppression, the impact of wildfires has considerably increased across the Mediterranean region since the second half of the 20th century. Modulating fire suppression efforts in mild weather conditions is an appealing but hotly-debated strategy to use unpl...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Adrián Regos, Núria Aquilué, Javier Retana, Miquel De Cáceres, Lluís Brotons
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c41054b2de32401fafd671b69bd8b8a3
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:c41054b2de32401fafd671b69bd8b8a3
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c41054b2de32401fafd671b69bd8b8a32021-11-18T08:23:45ZUsing unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0094906https://doaj.org/article/c41054b2de32401fafd671b69bd8b8a32014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24727853/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Despite the huge resources invested in fire suppression, the impact of wildfires has considerably increased across the Mediterranean region since the second half of the 20th century. Modulating fire suppression efforts in mild weather conditions is an appealing but hotly-debated strategy to use unplanned fires and associated fuel reduction to create opportunities for suppression of large fires in future adverse weather conditions. Using a spatially-explicit fire-succession model developed for Catalonia (Spain), we assessed this opportunistic policy by using two fire suppression strategies that reproduce how firefighters in extreme weather conditions exploit previous fire scars as firefighting opportunities. We designed scenarios by combining different levels of fire suppression efficiency and climatic severity for a 50-year period (2000-2050). An opportunistic fire suppression policy induced large-scale changes in fire regimes and decreased the area burnt under extreme climate conditions, but only accounted for up to 18-22% of the area to be burnt in reference scenarios. The area suppressed in adverse years tended to increase in scenarios with increasing amounts of area burnt during years dominated by mild weather. Climate change had counterintuitive effects on opportunistic fire suppression strategies. Climate warming increased the incidence of large fires under uncontrolled conditions but also indirectly increased opportunities for enhanced fire suppression. Therefore, to shift fire suppression opportunities from adverse to mild years, we would require a disproportionately large amount of area burnt in mild years. We conclude that the strategic planning of fire suppression resources has the potential to become an important cost-effective fuel-reduction strategy at large spatial scale. We do however suggest that this strategy should probably be accompanied by other fuel-reduction treatments applied at broad scales if large-scale changes in fire regimes are to be achieved, especially in the wider context of climate change.Adrián RegosNúria AquiluéJavier RetanaMiquel De CáceresLluís BrotonsPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 4, p e94906 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Adrián Regos Núria Aquilué Javier Retana Miquel De Cáceres Lluís Brotons Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.
description	Despite the huge resources invested in fire suppression, the impact of wildfires has considerably increased across the Mediterranean region since the second half of the 20th century. Modulating fire suppression efforts in mild weather conditions is an appealing but hotly-debated strategy to use unplanned fires and associated fuel reduction to create opportunities for suppression of large fires in future adverse weather conditions. Using a spatially-explicit fire-succession model developed for Catalonia (Spain), we assessed this opportunistic policy by using two fire suppression strategies that reproduce how firefighters in extreme weather conditions exploit previous fire scars as firefighting opportunities. We designed scenarios by combining different levels of fire suppression efficiency and climatic severity for a 50-year period (2000-2050). An opportunistic fire suppression policy induced large-scale changes in fire regimes and decreased the area burnt under extreme climate conditions, but only accounted for up to 18-22% of the area to be burnt in reference scenarios. The area suppressed in adverse years tended to increase in scenarios with increasing amounts of area burnt during years dominated by mild weather. Climate change had counterintuitive effects on opportunistic fire suppression strategies. Climate warming increased the incidence of large fires under uncontrolled conditions but also indirectly increased opportunities for enhanced fire suppression. Therefore, to shift fire suppression opportunities from adverse to mild years, we would require a disproportionately large amount of area burnt in mild years. We conclude that the strategic planning of fire suppression resources has the potential to become an important cost-effective fuel-reduction strategy at large spatial scale. We do however suggest that this strategy should probably be accompanied by other fuel-reduction treatments applied at broad scales if large-scale changes in fire regimes are to be achieved, especially in the wider context of climate change.
format	article
author	Adrián Regos Núria Aquilué Javier Retana Miquel De Cáceres Lluís Brotons
author_facet	Adrián Regos Núria Aquilué Javier Retana Miquel De Cáceres Lluís Brotons
author_sort	Adrián Regos
title	Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.
title_short	Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.
title_full	Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.
title_fullStr	Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.
title_full_unstemmed	Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.
title_sort	using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in mediterranean forests.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/c41054b2de32401fafd671b69bd8b8a3
work_keys_str_mv	AT adrianregos usingunplannedfirestohelpsuppressingfuturelargefiresinmediterraneanforests AT nuriaaquilue usingunplannedfirestohelpsuppressingfuturelargefiresinmediterraneanforests AT javierretana usingunplannedfirestohelpsuppressingfuturelargefiresinmediterraneanforests AT miqueldecaceres usingunplannedfirestohelpsuppressingfuturelargefiresinmediterraneanforests AT lluisbrotons usingunplannedfirestohelpsuppressingfuturelargefiresinmediterraneanforests
_version_	1718421887970705408

Using unplanned fires to help suppressing future large fires in Mediterranean forests.

Ejemplares similares