scholarly journals Understanding the Impact of Different Landscape-Level Fuel Management Strategies on Wildfire Hazard in Central Portugal

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Akli Benali ◽  
Ana C. L. Sá ◽  
João Pinho ◽  
Paulo M. Fernandes ◽  
José M. C. Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategies ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Treatment Area ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
The North ◽  
Wildfire Hazard ◽  
Central Portugal ◽  
The Impact

The extreme 2017 fire season in Portugal led to widespread recognition of the need for a paradigm shift in forest and wildfire management. We focused our study on Alvares, a parish in central Portugal located in a fire-prone area, which had 60% of its area burned in 2017. We evaluated how different fuel treatment strategies may reduce wildfire hazard in Alvares through (i) a fuel break network with different extents corresponding to different levels of priority and (ii) random fuel treatments resulting from a potential increase in stand-level management intensity. To assess this, we developed a stochastic wildfire simulation system (FUNC-SIM) that integrates uncertainties in fuel distribution over the landscape. If the landscape remains unchanged, Alvares will have large burn probabilities in the north, northeast and center-east areas of the parish that are very often associated with high fireline intensities. The different fuel treatment scenarios decreased burned area between 12.1–31.2%, resulting from 1–4.6% increases in the annual treatment area and reduced the likelihood of wildfires larger than 5000 ha by 10–40%. On average, simulated burned area decreased 0.22% per each ha treated, and cost-effectiveness decreased with increasing area treated. Overall, both fuel treatment strategies effectively reduced wildfire hazard and should be part of a larger, holistic and integrated plan to reduce the vulnerability of the Alvares parish to wildfires.

scholarly journals Understanding the impact of different landscape-level fuel management strategies on wildfire hazard

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akli Benali ◽  
Ana C.L. Sá ◽  
João Pinho ◽  
Paulo Fernandes ◽  
José M.C. Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategies ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Treatment Area ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Fuel Distribution ◽  
The North ◽  
Wildfire Hazard ◽  
The Impact

The disastrous 2017 fire season in Portugal lead to widespread recognition of the need for a paradigm shift in forest and fire management. We focused our study on Alvares, a parish in central Portugal which had 60% of its area burned in 2017, with a large record of historical. We evaluated how different fuel treatment strategies can reduce wildfire hazard in Alvares, through i) a fuel break network with different priorities and ii) random fuel treatments resulting from stand-level management intensification. To assess this, we developed a stochastic fire simulation system (FUNC-SIM) that integrates uncertainties in fuel distribution over the landscape. If the landscape remains unchanged, Alvares will have large burn probabilities in the north, northeast, and center-east areas of the parish that are very often associated with high fire line intensities. The different fuel treatment scenarios decreased burned area between 12.1-31.2%, resulting from 1%-4.6% increases in annual treatment area, and reduced 10%-40% the likelihood of wildfires larger than 5000 ha. On average, simulated burned area decreased 0.22% per each ha treated, and effectiveness decreased with increasing area treated. Overall, both fuel treatment strategies effectively reduced wildfire hazard and should be part of a larger, holistic and integrated plan to reduce the vulnerability of the Alvares parish to wildfires.

scholarly journals Different bottom trawl fisheries have a differential impact on the status of the North Sea seafloor habitats

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 1772-1786 ◽  
Author(s):  
A D Rijnsdorp ◽  
J G Hiddink ◽  
P D van Denderen ◽  
N T Hintzen ◽  
O R Eigaard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Demersal Fish ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
The North ◽  
The Status ◽  
Fisheries Conservation ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Trawl Fisheries

Abstract Fisheries using bottom trawls are the most widespread source of anthropogenic physical disturbance to seafloor habitats. To mitigate such disturbances, the development of fisheries-, conservation-, and ecosystem-based management strategies requires the assessment of the impact of bottom trawling on the state of benthic biota. We explore a quantitative and mechanistic framework to assess trawling impact. Pressure and impact indicators that provide a continuous pressure–response curve are estimated at a spatial resolution of 1 × 1 min latitude and longitude (∼2 km2) using three methods: L1 estimates the proportion of the community with a life span exceeding the time interval between trawling events; L2 estimates the decrease in median longevity in response to trawling; and population dynamic (PD) estimates the decrease in biomass in response to trawling and the recovery time. Although impact scores are correlated, PD has the best performance over a broad range of trawling intensities. Using the framework in a trawling impact assessment of ten métiers in the North Sea shows that muddy habitats are impacted the most and coarse habitats are impacted the least. Otter trawling for crustaceans has the highest impact, followed by otter trawling for demersal fish and beam trawling for flatfish and flyshooting. Beam trawling for brown shrimps, otter trawling for industrial fish, and dredging for molluscs have the lowest impact. Trawling is highly aggregated in core fishing grounds where the status of the seafloor is low but the catch per unit of effort (CPUE) per unit of impact is high, in contrast to peripheral grounds, where CPUE per unit of impact is low.

scholarly journals Impact of large wildfires on PM<sub>10</sub> levels and human mortality in Portugal

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 2867-2880
Author(s):  
Patricia Tarín-Carrasco ◽  
Sofia Augusto ◽  
Laura Palacios-Peña ◽  
Nuno Ratola ◽  
Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero
Keyword(s):  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
The North ◽  
Mainland Portugal ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
European Forest ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring Stations ◽  
June July

Abstract. Uncontrolled wildfires have a substantial impact on the environment, the economy and local populations. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), between 2000 and 2013 wildfires burned up to 740 000 ha of land annually in the south of Europe, Portugal being the country with the highest percentage of burned area per square kilometre. However, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the impacts of the wildfire-related pollutants on the mortality of the country's population. All wildfires occurring during the fire season (June–July–August–September) from 2001 and 2016 were identified, and those with a burned area above 1000 ha (large fires) were considered for the study. During the studied period (2001–2016), more than 2 million ha of forest (929 766 ha from June to September alone) were burned in mainland Portugal. Although large fires only represent less than 1 % of the number of total fires, in terms of burned area their contribution is 46 % (53 % from June to September). To assess the spatial impact of the wildfires, burned areas in each region of Portugal were correlated with PM10 concentrations measured at nearby background air quality monitoring stations. Associations between PM10 and all-cause (excluding injuries, poisoning and external causes) and cause-specific mortality (circulatory and respiratory) were studied for the affected populations using Poisson regression models. A significant positive correlation between burned area and PM10 was found in some regions of Portugal, as well as a significant association between PM10 concentrations and mortality, these being apparently related to large wildfires in some of the regions. The north, centre and inland of Portugal are the most affected areas. The high temperatures and long episodes of drought expected in the future will increase the probabilities of extreme events and therefore the occurrence of wildfires.

scholarly journals Destination Management in Lesvos, Greece. Characteristics, Preferences, Images, Satisfaction, and Overall Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-106
Author(s):  
Mary Constantoglou
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Destination Image ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Aegean Region ◽  
The North ◽  
North Aegean ◽  
The Impact

As the tourism sector is continually evolving, touristic destinations and service providers should give close and thoughtful attention to customers’ satisfaction, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic period. Tourism for Greece represents one of the most valuable pillars of the economy and the impact of the pandemic to the sector and GDP will be significant. In this era, it is evident the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals and effective Destination Management that will take into consideration all aspects of the local communities. Customer satisfaction is crucial to improving strategies that destinations must follow to service quality and satisfaction management strategies. Recent consumer and technological trends make customer satisfaction more important than ever. This paper aims to investigate the characteristics, preferences, images, satisfaction levels, and the overall experience gained by the tourists visiting Lesvos island in the North Aegean Region Greece. Primary research was conducted and the airport of the island during departure in 2019. The useful gathered questionnaires (201) provided helpful information to the island’s DMO related to the visitors’ demographic characteristics, destination perception, awareness and competitiveness, satisfaction and overall experience. The basic research findings were the strong impression of the visitors about the authenticity of the destination. They also believe that prices are excellent and the rate of value for money is high. At the same time, visitors think that the island is not promoted very good and the image/brand of the island is not very clear and well defined. It is the first research conducted to visitors departing from Lesvos island to the authors’ best knowledge. The results and discussion of this study will be useful to the islands’ DMO and the island’s tourism authorities and the North Aegean Region and other similar island destinations, which wish to maximize the benefits of tourism development. Keywords: Destination Management Organization, Destination Image, Branding, Visitor Satisfaction, Experience.

scholarly journals Post-fire vegetation recovery in Portugal based on spot/vegetation data

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Gouveia ◽  
C. C. DaCamara ◽  
R. M. Trigo
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Vegetation Recovery ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Vegetation Density ◽  
Fire Event ◽  
Central Portugal

Abstract. A procedure is presented that allows identifying large burned scars and the monitoring of vegetation recovery in the years following major fire episodes. The procedure relies on 10-day fields of Maximum Value Composites of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (MVC-NDVI), with a 1 km×1 km spatial resolution obtained from the VEGETATION instrument. The identification of fire scars during the extremely severe 2003 fire season is performed based on cluster analysis of NDVI anomalies that persist during the vegetative cycle of the year following the fire event. Two regions containing very large burned scars were selected, located in Central and Southwestern Portugal, respectively, and time series of MVC-NDVI analysed before the fire events took place and throughout the post-fire period. It is shown that post-fire vegetation dynamics in the two selected regions may be characterised based on maps of recovery rates as estimated by fitting a monoparametric model of vegetation recovery to MVC-NDVI data over each burned scar. Results indicated that the recovery process in the region located in Central Portugal is mostly related to fire damage rather than to vegetation density before 2003, whereas the latter seems to have a more prominent role than vegetation conditions after the fire episode, e.g. in the case of the region in Southwestern Portugal. These differences are consistent with the respective predominant types of vegetation. The burned area located in Central Portugal is dominated by Pinus Pinaster whose natural regeneration crucially depends on the destruction of seeds present on the soil surface during the fire, whereas the burned scar in Southwestern Portugal was populated by Eucalyptus that may quickly re-sprout from buds after fire. Besides its simplicity, the monoparametric model of vegetation recovery has the advantage of being easily adapted to other low-resolution satellite data, as well as to other types of vegetation indices.

Assessment of the impacts of PM10 due to wildfires on human mortality in Portugal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero ◽  
Sofia Augusto ◽  
Laura Palacios-Peña ◽  
Nuno Ratola ◽  
Patricia Tarín-Carrasco
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Respiratory Morbidity ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Population Mortality ◽  
June July ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;Wildfires are a major environmental problem that the current society must face and climate change will increase the number and intensity of wildfires during the next years. One of the problems is the toxicity of the pollutants emitted from biomass burning, including particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic carbon, and some secondary pollutants. Some of these chemicals have demonstrated to impact human health, being responsible for increases on cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity and mortality (Johnston et al., 2012). These facts contribute to the deterioration of the air quality, therefore causing afflictions that may even end up in death. Wildfires are a worldwide concern, but in Europe the southern countries are the most affected. Thus, the estimation of the effects of wildfires on human health due to PM exposure is fundamental to manage health resources and public funds. Portugal was one of the European countries most affected by wildfires in the last decade, yet there is a lack of knowledge regarding impacts of the wildfire-related pollutants on the population mortality.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This study aims to describe the pattern of wildfires occurring in a period of 16 years (2001-2016) during the fire season (June, July, August and September) and to assess the impact of wildfire-generated PM&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt; on the Portuguese population mortality, considering the fires that produced a burned area equal or above 1000 ha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Data for PM&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt; measured in background air quality monitoring stations was obtained from the Portuguese Environment Agency. All-cause (excluding injuries, poisoning and external causes) and cause-specific mortality (circulatory and respiratory) data was provided by Statistics Portugal. PM&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt; concentrations were correlated with the burned area. Associations between PM&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt; exposure and all-cause and cause-specific mortalities were studied using Poisson regression models. We found significant correlation between burned area and mortality in some NUTS, in particular, inland and north of Portugal mainland. Also, a good and significant correlation between burned area and PM&lt;sub&gt;10 &lt;/sub&gt;is found. This means that big fires have an impact on the dwellers health due to Particulate Matter causing diseases and even provoking the death.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acknowledgements&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This work was financially supported by project UID/EQU/00511/2019 - Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy &amp;#8211; LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC). S. Augusto was supported by FCT-MCTES (SFRH/BPD/109382/2015). L. Palacios-Pe&amp;#241;a thanks to the scholarship FPU14/05505 of the Education, Culture and Sport Ministry. We acknowledge the project ACEX (CGL-2017-87921-R) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Fundaci&amp;#243;n Biodiversidad of the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition, and the FEDER European program, for support to conduct this research.&lt;/p&gt;

Impacts of fire and fire surrogate treatments on ecosystem nitrogen storage patterns: similarities and differences between forests of eastern and western North America

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 3056-3070 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E.J. Boerner ◽  
Jianjun Huang ◽  
Stephen C. Hart
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategies ◽  
N Deposition ◽  
Atmospheric N Deposition ◽  
N Losses ◽  
Total N ◽  
Wildfire Hazard ◽  
Forest Sites ◽  
C And N ◽  
C And N Cycling ◽  
The Impact

The Fire and Fire Surrogates (FFS) network is composed of 12 forest sites that span the continental United States, all of which historically had frequent low-severity fire. The goal of the FFS study was to assess the efficacy of three management treatments (prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, and their combination) in reducing wildfire hazard and increasing ecosystem sustainability. This paper describes the impact of the FFS treatments on nitrogen (N) storage and distribution. At the network scale, total ecosystem N averaged 4480 kg·ha–1, with ∼9% in vegetation, ∼9% in forest floor, ∼2% in deadwood, and ∼80% in soil. The loss of vegetation N to fire averaged (±SE) 25 ± 11 kg·ha–1, whereas the mechanical and combined mechanical and fire treatments resulted in N losses of 133 ± 21 and 145 ± 19 kg·ha–1, respectively. Western coniferous forests lost more N from each treatment than did eastern forests. None of the manipulative FFS treatments impacted >10%–15% of total N of these ecosystems. Management strategies that maximize ecosystem carbon (C) gain by minimizing loss of N should be a focus in western forests, where C and N cycling are tightly linked, but perhaps not in those eastern forests where atmospheric N deposition has decoupled C and N cycles.

scholarly journals Mycotoxins that affect the North American agri-food sector: state of the art and directions for the future

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.D. Miller ◽  
A.W. Schaafsma ◽  
D. Bhatnagar ◽  
G. Bondy ◽  
I. Carbone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
The North ◽  
Food And Feed ◽  
The Impact

This paper summarises workshop discussions at the 5th international MYCORED meeting in Ottawa, Canada (June 2012) with over 200 participants representing academics, government and industry scientists, government officials and farming organisations (present in roughly equal proportions) from 27 countries. Workshops centred on how mycotoxins in food and feed affect value chains and trade in the region covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Crops are contaminated by one or more of five important mycotoxins in parts of Canada and the United States every year, and when contaminated food and feed are consumed in amounts above tolerable limits, human and animal health are at risk. Economic loss from such contamination includes reduced crop yield, grain quality, animal productivity and loss of domestic and export markets. A systematic effort by grain producers, primary, transfer, and terminal elevators, millers and food and feed processers is required to manage these contaminants along the value chain. Workshops discussed lessons learned from investments in plant genetics, fungal genomics, toxicology, analytical and sampling science, management strategies along the food and feed value chains and methods to ameliorate the effects of toxins in grain on animal production and on reducing the impact of mycotoxins on population health in developing countries. These discussions were used to develop a set of priorities and recommendations.

scholarly journals Tourist Perception of Visitor Management Strategy in North Bandung Protected Area

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Ersy Ervina ◽  
SRP Wulunga ◽  
Vany Octivanya
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Visitor Management ◽  
Tourist Satisfaction ◽  
The North ◽  
Implementation Level ◽  
The Impact

Sustainable tourism is one of Djuanda Forest Park (Tahura) management goals in implementing a visitor management strategy in the North Bandung Protected Areas. Djuanda Forest Park is an important area to be preserved as a tourist destination because of its very strategic function for environmental sustainability in Bandung City and its buffer areas. The visitor management strategy's implementation level can be seen from the perception of tourist who comes to Djuanda Forest Park, which analyzes by the intensity of destination use, accessibility, and carrying capacity. Perception cannot be separated from the satisfaction of tourists when visiting. This study aims to analyze tourists' perceptions of the implementation of visitor management strategies together with tourist satisfaction in the Tahura protected area. The method used is descriptive with data collection techniques through questionnaires. The results showed that tourist perceptions and satisfaction with the Visitor Management Strategy application were quite good. In improving quality, management is expected to be able to design a more systematic flow of visits and limit the number of visits for each tourist area to minimize the impact of tourism activities on the environment. On the satisfaction side, managers need to improve product and service quality, especially the preservation of tourist areas to create tourists experience

Towards understanding nitrogen legacies in European catchments

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Sarrazin ◽  
Rohini Kumar ◽  
Kimberly Van Meter ◽  
Michael Weber ◽  
Andreas Musolff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Root Zone ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Element Model ◽  
Organic N ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Model Soil ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
The North ◽  
Input Dataset ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;Reducing nitrogen (N) levels in European water bodies is a pressing issue, as evidenced by the recent fines imposed by the European Count Justice on countries such as France, Germany and Greece for exceeding the regulatory limits for nitrate (World Bank report on &amp;#8220;Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis&amp;#8221; by Damania et al., 2019). N levels can depend not only on current N inputs to the landscape, but also on the past N inputs that have accumulated through time in the soil root zone and the groundwater in so-called &amp;#8216;legacy stores&amp;#8217;. Effective N management strategies should therefore account for these N legacies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This study aims to gain a better understanding of the impact of N legacies on in-stream nitrate concentration and loading at annual time scale in European catchments. To this end, we apply a parsimonious nitrate model, called ELEMENT (Van Meter et al., 2017, Global Biogeochem Cycles), given the limited amount of information available to constrain and test the model simulations. We construct a nitrogen input dataset (N-surplus) to force the model from the early 19&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Century, thus ensuring the build-up of the model soil and groundwater legacy stores. We estimate the model parameters based on the application of &amp;#8216;soft rules&amp;#8217;, to account for the uncertainty in the model inputs and the output measurements, and we examine the model controlling processes using sensitivity analysis.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We present here the results for the case of the Weser catchment, a large catchment in northern Germany that discharges into the North Sea. In particular, our results show that the model reproduces well nitrate stream loading. Despite the parsimonious structure of the ELEMENT model, we identify the presence of parameter equifinality, when the model is constrained using in-stream concentration and loading only. We discuss the possibility of using additional information (such as soil organic N content) to improve parameter identifiability and the overall simulation results.&lt;/p&gt;

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