Project no. Fp6-018505 Project Acronym fire paradox

5.2Spatial patterns of fire detections

Population density

In Portugal, the areas where population is more effective in detecting fires are those with higher population density (>100 persons/km²). In the areas with lower population density (0 to 100 persons/km²), the ground fixed detection system was responsible for approximately 20% of all detections, but it decreases to about 5% in highly populated areas (figure 41).

Figure 41. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Portugal in relation to population density.

In Spain, as it occurs in Portugal, population is more effective in detecting fires in areas with higher population density (mainly above 250 persons/km²), and the ground fixed detection systems are also less effective in these areas (figure 42). Ground mobile detection systems seems not to be much affected by population density.

Figure 42. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Spain in relation to population density.

Land cover

In Portugal, although differences between land cover types are small, the areas where population is comparatively more effective in detecting fires are the urban-rural interspersed areas. Shrublands are the land cover type where lookouts are more effective, and simultaneously where population is less effective (figure 43). Most part of detections are made in agricultural areas (60%), urban-rural interspersed areas (24%), and forests (12%) (figure 44).

Figure 43. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Portugal in relation to some of the main land cover classes.

Figure 44. Frequency of fire detections in the main land cover classes.

In Spain, as occurs in Portugal, the areas where population is more effective in detecting fires are the urban-rural interspersed areas. Shrublands are also the land cover type where lookouts are more effective, and simultaneously where population is less effective (figure 45). Most part of detections are made in agricultural areas (47%), shrublands (27%), and forests (21%) (figure 46).

Figure 45. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Spain in relation to some of the main land cover classes.

Figure 46. Frequency of fire detections in the main land cover classes.

Detections as related to elevation

Both in Portugal and in Spain, the ground fixed detection system is clearly more effective at higher altitudes than at lower altitudes, contrarily to population (figures 47 and 48). The ground mobile detection systems also seem to be more effective at higher altitudes than at lower altitudes.

Figure 47. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Portugal in relation to altitude.

Figure 48. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Spain in relation to altitude.

Detections and area burned

In Portugal, as we previously saw, population is always the most important detection source; however, it is proportionally more important in detecting smaller fires than larger fires. On the contrary, the ground fixed detection system is proportionally more important in detecting larger fires than smaller fires. More than 30% of the fires detected by the lookouts burned more than 100 ha (figure 9). This can be partially due to the fact that many lookouts are located in more remote areas where fire fighting is more difficult and less timely. This more remote location can also eventually explain the patterns observed in intervention times (see figure 49).

Figure 49. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Portugal in relation to the final burned area.

In Spain, as in Portugal, the ground fixed detection system is proportionally more important in detecting larger fires than smaller fires, especially in cases of fires that burned more than 250 ha (figure 50). As in Portugal, this can be partially due to the fact that many lookouts are located in more remote areas. Maybe partially due to the same reason, there are very few detections made by mobile systems on fires that burned more than 250 ha.

Figure 50. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Spain in relation to the final burned area.

Detections and intervention time

In figure 51 we can see that in Portugal, shorter intervention times are more associated to detections made by population, and longer intervention times are more associated to detections made by ground fixed systems; as mentioned above, this can be partially due to the fact that many lookouts are located in more remote areas, where firemen take longer to arrive.

Figure 51. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Portugal in relation to the intervention time (time elapsed between the fire alert and the first intervention).

In Spain, the ground mobile detection systems are proportionally much more important detecting fires that had reduced intervention times (less then 30 min), reaching a maximum of importance in fires with intervention times lower than 10 min. This is probably related to the fact that many mobile brigades, besides fire detection, also take part in the first fire fighting intervention actions (figure 52).

Figure 52. Relative importance of each main fire detection systems in Spain in relation to the intervention time (time elapsed between the fire alert and the first intervention).

6Conclusions

Early and effective wildfire detection constitutes a crucial issue for reducing fire damages. Frequently much more attention is given to fire fighting, than to fire detection (and prevention), which is somewhat a paradox because most people recognize that fire fighting is not likely to be effective without an early detection.

The present deliverable presents an assessment and comparison of the fire detection systems operating across Europe and North Africa. Additionally, a detailed analysis of the temporal and spatial patterns of detected wildfires in relation to several factors was performed for the Iberian Peninsula, which is currently the European region with the highest density of wildfires. The results obtained in this study can be very useful to managers and decision makers, showing several important factors concerning fire detection.

The most common detection systems are lookout towers, used by thirteen countries (87%), followed by the mobile brigades with eleven answers (73%). Also in the field of the terrestrial detection, seven countries (47%) have volunteer programs that complement the official terrestrial detection.

France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovenia use video surveillance together with lookout towers networks.

The use of airplanes and helicopters for the aerial vigilance is not very frequent. Only eight countries use airplanes and only Italy and Spain use helicopters for this purpose. Sweden is the only country that relies solely on airplanes for surveillance actions.

Although the different detections systems complement each other, just seven countries use both the terrestrial and aerial systems.

While much research has been done in the past years, from fifteen countries merely France, Italy Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain utilize some new technologies to complement the traditional means. Most of these countries are using pilot projects to evaluate their efficiency. For instance, France is working with two projects, however one was terminated because of its unreliability. The second project is being tested, but still needs significant improvements before being made available for extensive use.

Spain is the country where more projects with new technologies have been implemented and, to our knowledge, the only one in Europe that uses satellite imagery for meteorological prediction and hot spot detection; other countries mentioned this system, but only to follow the development of a fire and to quantify the burnt area.

The Forest Services are the institutions that in more than half the countries coordinate the lookout towers systems. The exceptions are for instance, Portugal, where the coordination of all the detection belongs to a police corps, or Morocco where the High Commissariat to fight Desertification has the coordination. Although the coordination belongs to one or two institutions, several other entities are partners on this task. These partnerships evolve police forces, nature park services, forest owners associations fire fighters, civil protection among others.

Most of the workers have specific training to perform their duties with the exception of Morocco and Lithuania. In the majority of the countries training is given by institutions related to forest management or to Civil Protection.

The human resources have a seasonal work, and this can be a problem, if every year it is necessary to hire new people that can have experience or not.

The analysis of wildfire detections in the Iberian Peninsula during the period 2001-2007 showed that nowadays the majority of fires are detected by the population (88% and 56%, respectively). The official detection systems are still very important but play a secondary role, especially in Portugal, where they were responsible for only 12% of detected wildfires (44% in Spain). The ground fixed detection systems, mainly constituted by lookouts, were the main official detection system in both countries, being responsible for 11% and 28% of all fires detected in Portugal and Spain, respectively. However, it is interesting to notice that in Portugal the importance of lookouts was much higher if we consider the fires that resulted in large burned areas. At the national level, the ground mobile systems only have a relevant expression in Spain, where they were responsible for 16% of detections (less than 1% in Portugal), but like lookouts they can be much more important at the regional level. Finally, the aerial detection systems were responsible in both countries for less than 1% of all wildfire detections.

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1 D7.1-1.1: List and classification of the existing EU and national legislation texts forest legislation texts with reference to wildland, suppression and prescribed fires & D7.1-2.1: List and classification of the existing EU and national policy instruments with reference to wildland, suppression or prescribed fires.

2 In forests belonging to other owners, no form of observation in order to detect fires is used.

3 Ministry of the Environment. Press Release of 25 August 2006

4 Explanation given by the Sweden questionnaire reply.