Optimizing Fuel Treatments Allocation to Protect the Wildland–Urban Interface from Large-Scale Wildfires in Greece

Fire

article

Margarita Bachantourian¹  Kostas Kalabokidis²  Palaiologos Palaiologou³  Kyriakos Chaleplis⁴ 

[1] Department of Kassandra Forest Service, Hellenic Forest Service, Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy;Department of Geography, University of the Aegean;Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, Agricultural University of Athens;Department of Kassandra Fire Service

关键词: wildland–urban interface;    Chalkidiki;    multicriteria decisions analysis;    analytic hierarchy process;    fire simulations;    minimum travel time;    treatment optimization model;   

DOI  :  10.3390/fire6020075

学科分类：环境科学（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A crucial risk governance priority of the Greek forest managers is to reduce damages in the wildland–urban interface (WUI) by controlling wildfire behavior through fuel management practices. To support decisions for where management should be applied and how, this study experimented with new methods for fuel treatments allocation over a typical Mediterranean fire-prone landscape in the peninsula of Kassandra (an area of 350 km2), northern Greece. The Minimum Travel Time (MTT) fire simulation algorithm and the Treatment Optimization Model were used to produce eight spatial exclusionary and non-exclusionary datasets that were used as criteria for the spatial optimization of fuel management interventions. We used the Multicriteria Decisions Analysis method with Geographical Information Systems to cartographically intersect the criteria to produce two priority maps for two forest management scenarios (i.e., a control and a realistic one). The results revealed that 48 km2 of the study area was characterized as high-priority locations in the control scenario (i.e., with equally weighted management priorities), while 60 km2 was assigned to the high-priority class in the realistic scenario (i.e., with different weighted management priorities). Further analysis showed a substantial variation in treatment priority among the four major forest land cover types (broadleaves, sparse Mediterranean shrublands, conifers, and dense Mediterranean shrublands), revealing that the latter two had the highest selection values. Our methodological framework has already been operationally used by the Greek Forest Service branch of Kassandra to decide the most effective landscape fuel treatment allocation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY