Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters

Root Causes and New Management Strategies

Fantina Tedim, Vittorio Leone, Tara K. McGee, Tara K. Mcgee

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780128157213
• eBook ISBN: 9780128157220
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters: Root Causes and New Management Strategies highlights the urgent need for new methods to prepare and mitigate the effects of these events. Using a multidisciplinary, socio-ecological approach, the book discusses the roots of the problem, presenting a new, innovative approach to wildfire mitigation based on the operational concept of Fire Smart Territory (FST). Under the guidance of its expert editors, the book highlights new ways to prevent and respond to extreme wildfire events and disasters through sustainable development, thus revealing better management methods and increasing protection of both the natural environment and the vulnerable communities within it.- Reveals the complexity of extreme wildfire events and disasters in an accessible, comprehensive and multidisciplinary way- Reviews the ground-breaking concept of Fire Smart Territory (FST) which offers an opportunity to reduce wildfire occurrence and severity through measures that promote sustainable development- Proposes a new perspective on disaster risk reduction to help researchers, planners and professionals successfully adapt their methods for mitigating current and future issues

Part One

Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters: Concept and Global Trends

Outline

1. 1. Extreme wildfire events: The definition
2. 2. Extreme wildfires and disasters around the world: lessons to be learned

1

Extreme wildfire events

The definition

Fantina Tedim ^{1 , 2} , Vittorio Leone ³ , Michael Coughlan ⁴ , Christophe Bouillon ⁵ , Gavriil Xanthopoulos ⁶ , Dominic Royé ⁷ , Fernando J.M. Correia ¹ , and Carmen Ferreira ^{1 1} Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal ² Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NWT, Australia ³ Faculty of Agriculture, University of Basilicata (retired), Potenza, Italy ⁴ Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, United States ⁵ National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture (IRSTEA), Risks Ecosystems Environment Vulnerability Resilience (RECOVER) research unit, Aix-en-Provence, France ⁶ Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems, Athens, Greece ⁷ University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Abstract

Extreme wildfires events (EWEs) represent a minority among all wildfires but are a true challenge for societies as they exceed the current control capacity even in the best prepared regions of the world and they create destruction and a disproportionately number of fatalities. Recent events in Portugal, Chile, Greece, Australia, Canada, and the USA provide evidence that EWEs are an escalating worldwide problem, exceeding all previous records. Despite the challenges put by climate change, the occurrence of EWEs and disasters is not an ecological inevitability. In this chapter the rationale of the definition of EWEs and the integration of potential consequences on people and assets in a novel wildfire classification scheme are proposed and discussed. They are excellent instruments to enhance wildfire risk and crisis communication programs and to define appropriate prevention, mitigation, and response measures which are crucial to build up citizens' safety.

Keywords

Control capacity; Disaster; Extreme wildfire event (EWE); Fire intensity; Mitigation; Preparedness; Prevention; Rate of spread; Socioeconomic system (SES); Wildfire classification

1.1. Extreme wildfires: A true challenge for societies

1.1.1. An escalating worldwide problem

In the absence of human activity, wildfires are a natural phenomenon in many types of vegetation cover and forest ecosystems, but their current manifestation around the world is far from “natural.” Humans make them worse at every step; their activities are becoming the predominant cause of fires and are increasing the available forest fuels (e.g., planting inappropriate species for high-risk areas); by building next to or inside forests, they increase the risk to people and property and contribute to the risk of fire spread [1]. Notwithstanding escalating management costs, increased knowledge, development of technological tools and devices, improvement of training, and reinforcement of resources, wildfires continue to surprise us, largely because the aforementioned social activities increase the likelihood of extreme fire behavior and impacts. Climate change processes will further escalate the associated risk and costs.

Almost every year, wildfires of unprecedented size and intensity occur around the globe. Many of them provoke massive evacuation, fatalities and casualties, and a higher toll of damage, exceeding all previous records. These powerful wildfires represent a minority among all wildfires, but they create a disproportionately large threat to firefighter crews, assets, natural values, societies, and their members [2]. Some countries such as Australia, United States, and Canada have a long history of these powerful and often destructive phenomena [3–10].

With its abundant forests and extremely hot and dry climate, since European settlement Australia has suffered from extremely deadly fire events; a long series starting in 1851 with Black Thursday [11], when fires covered a quarter of what is now Victoria. The series of ferocious bushfires continued with 1^st February 1898 Red Tuesday that burned out 260,000 ha, caused the death of 12 people, and destroyed more than 2000 buildings in South Gippsland; then in 1926 in Gippsland, Eastern Victoria Black Sunday, with 60 fatalities and widespread damage to farms, homes, and forests. Finally, the series peaked with the 1939 Black Friday blaze in Victoria, which killed 71 people, destroyed more than 650 structures, and burned 1.5 to two million hectares. Many years later, in 1983, in the Ash Wednesday bushfires, in Victoria and South Australia, more than 22 fires burned about 393,000 ha and killed 75 people [12]. Then in 2009, Black Saturday fires become the worst in Australia's history with 500 injured and 173 fatalities, far exceeding the loss of life from any previous bushfires. For southeastern Australia (one of the three most fire-prone landscapes on Earth [13]), bushfires exhibit an abrupt increase in the frequency of pyrocumuloninbus (pyroCb; according to the World Meteorological Organization, pyrocumuloninbus is the unofficial name for cumulonimbus flammagenitus) events over the last decade [10] and a bigger value of fire intensity and total po...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Part One. Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters: Concept and Global Trends
• Part Two. Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters: The Root of the Problem
• Part Three. Towards a New Approach to Cope with Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters
• Part Four. How to Cope with the Problem of Extreme Wildfires and Disasters
• Index