The project FIRE-SCENE – ‘Advancing wildfire Civil Protection scenarios into risk planning and governance’ has started this week. FIRE-SCENE aims to develop novel procedures and tools to enhance the capacity to protect citizens from new wildfire risk scenarios promoted by the changing climate conditions. Funded by the European Union, the project is led by the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) and will last for two years.
“FIRE-SCENE seeks to find innovative solutions for wildfire risk management in areas with resident and temporary populations, such as wildland-urban interfaces, natural parks and recreational sites, so that the different actors involved can work coherently from a governance point of view. To achieve this, we will apply a multisectoral approach.”, states Guillem Canaleta, project manager at PCF.
The frequency of extreme wildfires is increasing due to climate change and insufficient forest management. These events devastate ecosystems, society and the economy, and challenge Civil Protection capacity to guarantee citizen safety. This is particularly challenging in the case of areas populated either by residents or tourists just passing by. These challenges will be addressed across four pilots in the Mediterranean with wildland-urban interfaces, tourist villages, resorts, recreational sites and natural parks.
“We have established two pilots in Catalonia. One will focus on wildland-urban interfaces (WUIs) and the other on the Cap de Creus Natural Park and the Solsonés region. We will establish a WUI classification system based on their risk that will help identify the most appropriate safety measures. As for the second pilot, the two sites it encompasses have accesses that are hard to reach. Also, in the summer, when it’s fire season, they concentrate many scattered people. How do you deal with it in case of a wildfire? This is something we will address,” adds Canaleta.
The main outputs FIRE-SCENE will generate include tools to assess and plan for emerging wildfire risk scenarios and to enhance risk awareness, recommendations to improve integrated wildfire risk governance, knowledge-exchange events, and dissemination actions targeted at Civil Protection systems and policymakers.
The project consortium is composed of six organisations from Spain, Greece and Italy representing different sectors such as research, Civil Protection, public administration and non-profit wildfire management and prevention. The Foundation leads the engagement of stakeholders and the communication and dissemination of the project and its results.
“From the technical point of view, the Foundation will set the framework for all pilots to engage with stakeholders and support CTFC and Catalan Civil Protection run the two pilots in Catalonia. Besides, FIRE-SCENE is an opportunity for us (PCF) to work on two important themes around wildfire risk: WUIs and diffuse land use by visitors and tourists. Engaging people who are not linked to the land is a challenge we are looking forward to taking on,” points out Canaleta.
In its initial stage, FIRE-SCENE will identify initiatives with shared objectives and start planning the development of the pilots. For more information on the project, visit its website and keep an eye on our communication channels for updates.
