scholarly journals Impact of large wildfires on PM10 levels and human mortality in Portugal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Tarín-Carrasco ◽  
Sofia Augusto ◽  
Laura Palacios-Peña ◽  
Nuno Ratola ◽  
Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero
Keyword(s):  
Burned Area ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Mainland Portugal ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
External Causes ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
European Forest ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring Stations ◽  
June July ◽  
Background Air

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 the years 2000 and 2013 wildfires burnt about 170,000–740,000 ha of land annually on the south of Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and France). Although most southern European countries have been impacted by wildfires in the last decades, Portugal was the most affected, having the highest percentage of burned area comparing to its whole territory. For this reason, it deserves a closer attention. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the impacts of the wildfire-related pollutants on the mortality of the population. All wildfires occurring during the fire seasons (June-July-August-September) from 2001 and 2016 were identified and those with a burned area above 1000 ha were considered for the study. To assess the spatial impact of the wildfires, these were correlated with PM10 concentrations measured at nearby background air quality monitoring stations, provided by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA). Associations between PM10 and all-cause (excluding injuries, poisoning and external causes) and cause-specific mortality (circulatory and respiratory), provided by Statistics Portugal, were studied for the affected populations, using Poisson regression models. During the studied period (2001–2016), more than 2 million ha of forest were burned in mainland Portugal and the 48 % of wildfires occurred were large fires. A significant correlation between burned area and PM10 have been found in some NUTS III (regions) on Portugal, as well as a significant correlation between burned area and mortality. North, centre and inland of Portugal are the most affected areas. The high temperatures and long episodes of drought expected on the future will increase the probabilities of extreme events and therefore, the occurrence of wildfires.

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.

Factors influencing large wildland fire suppression expenditures

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Liang ◽  
Dave E. Calkin ◽  
Krista M. Gebert ◽  
Tyron J. Venn ◽  
Robin P. Silverstein
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Department Of Agriculture ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Us ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Parsimonious Model

There is an urgent and immediate need to address the excessive cost of large fires. Here, we studied large wildland fire suppression expenditures by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Among 16 potential non-managerial factors, which represented fire size and shape, private properties, public land attributes, forest and fuel conditions, and geographic settings, we found only fire size and private land had a strong effect on suppression expenditures. When both were accounted for, all the other variables had no significant effect. A parsimonious model to predict suppression expenditures was suggested, in which fire size and private land explained 58% of variation in expenditures. Other things being equal, suppression expenditures monotonically increased with fire size. For the average fire size, expenditures first increased with the percentage of private land within burned area, but as the percentage exceeded 20%, expenditures slowly declined until they stabilised when private land reached 50% of burned area. The results suggested that efforts to contain federal suppression expenditures need to focus on the highly complex, politically sensitive topic of wildfires on private land.

scholarly journals Vehicular Emission: Estimate of Air Pollutants to Guide Local Political Choices. A Case Study

Environments ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Mazza ◽  
Donatella Aiello ◽  
Anastasia Macario ◽  
Pierantonio De Luca
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Preventive Screening ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Emission Estimate ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Environment Agency

The aim of this case study was to show how, with the use of software, is it possible to carry out a preventive screening of vehicular emissions. Moreover, thanks to this preliminary analysis, some areas that are potentially polluted can be identified in advance and suitable samplings on small-scale on them would help to verify the effectiveness of policies that can be adopted for the reduction of pollution. To this end, this paper reports a case study on vehicle traffic pollution in Calabria, a region in the south of Italy. We used the methodology called Corinair (Coordination Information AIR), developed by the EEA (European Environment Agency) and uses the software Copert4 (Computer Program to calculate Emission from Road Traffic). The total emissions per area were analyzed and the emissions for particular pollutants per unit area (km²) and per citizen were considered. The obsolete vehicles determined a substantial impact on the local atmospheric pollution. It was demonstrated how it is possible to substantially reduce the pollution of an area by adopting policies that encourage, for example, through tax concessions, the replacement of old cars of private citizens.

Distribution of residual vegetation associated with large fires in Alberta

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 1207-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin E. Eberhart ◽  
Paul M. Woodard
Keyword(s):  
Shape Index ◽  
Size Class ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Size Classes ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
The Third ◽  
Island Area ◽  
Large Fires

Fire size and shape, number and size of islands of residual vegetation, amount of edge, and distances to residual vegetation were analyzed for 69 fires that burned in Alberta between 1970 and 1983. These fires ranged in size from 21 to 17 770 ha. Distribution of residual vegetation was compared among five fire size classes. Fires in the smallest size class (20–40 ha) did not contain any islands of unburned vegetation. Percent of area within the fire perimeter that was actually disturbed decreased with increasing fire size. The number of unburned islands per 100 ha was highest for the third and fourth largest fire size classes (201–400 and 401–2000 ha). Median island area per fire, fire shape index, and edge index increased with fire size. Percentages of burned area within 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 m of residual vegetation decreased with increasing fire size. These results indicate decreased potential for natural reforestation and increased benefits to some wildlife habitats as fire size increases.

Relations and trends of Fire Weather Severity and MODIS Burned Area in Croatia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hrvoje Marjanovic ◽  
Anikó Kern ◽  
Masa Zorana Ostrogovic Sever ◽  
Visnja Vucetic ◽  
Mislav Anic
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Fire Fighting ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Precipitation Pattern ◽  
Severity Rating ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
European Forest ◽  
The One ◽  
Near Future

&lt;p&gt;Wildfires can inflict serious damage to forest ecosystems, agricultural areas and often endanger human settlements and lives. Rising global temperatures and changes in precipitation pattern increase the risk of severe fires. In Croatia, the areas currently most affected with high risk of forest fires are located in the Mediterranean region. Due to climate change the risk will likely increase and further strain the available fire-fighting resources. The situation could be even more alarming in Continental parts of the country where forest fires were not common in the past, but may become increasingly likely in the near future. Therefore, accurately assessing the wildfire risk is increasingly important in implementing fire-avoidance activities and optimizing the management of country&amp;#8217;s fire-fighting resources.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The aim of our study is to assess the change in the spatio-temporal distribution of the fire Daily Severity Rating (DSR) and the Seasonal Severity Rating (SSR) in the last two decades, with respect to the reference period 1961&amp;#8211;1990. We present a spatial analysis of SSR for the period 1989&amp;#8211;2018 in Croatia based on the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) data and compare it with the one of European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). The relation between the SSR and the burned area, estimated from MODIS MCD64A1 Version 6 Burned Area data product, during 2001&amp;#8211;2018 is investigated with the aim to facilitate locally optimized model for the assessment of the expected burned area associated with a given SSR. The results should contribute to improved understanding of the near-future risk of severe fires in Croatia related to possible future climate scenarios.&lt;/p&gt;

Relationships between fire danger and the daily number and daily growth of active incidents burning in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick H. Freeborn ◽  
Mark A. Cochrane ◽  
W. Matt Jolly
Keyword(s):  
Fire Danger ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Final Size ◽  
Temporal Window ◽  
Daily Growth ◽  
Northern Rocky Mountains ◽  
History Of ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
In Fire

Daily National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) indices are typically associated with the number and final size of newly discovered fires, or averaged over time and associated with the likelihood and total burned area of large fires. Herein we used a decade (2003–12) of NFDRS indices and US Forest Service (USFS) fire reports to examine daily relationships between fire danger and the number and growth rate of wildfires burning within a single predictive service area (PSA) in the Northern Rockies, USA. Results demonstrate that daily associations can be used to: (1) extend the utility of the NFDRS beyond the discovery date of new fires; (2) examine and justify the temporal window within which daily fire danger indices are averaged and related to total burned area; (3) quantify the probability of managing an active incident as a function of fire danger; and (4) quantify the magnitude and variability of daily fire growth as a function of fire danger. The methods herein can be extended to other areas with a daily history of weather and fire records, and can be used to better inform fire management decisions or to compare regional responses of daily fire activity to changes in fire danger.

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;

scholarly journals Modelling the spatial patterns of ignition causes and fire regime features in southern France: implications for fire prevention policy

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Curt ◽  
Thibaut Fréjaville ◽  
Sébastien Lahaye
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Seasonal Distribution ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Prevention Policy ◽  
Fire Policy ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Spatial Hotspots

A good knowledge of the spatiotemporal patterns of the causes of wildfire ignition is crucial to an effective fire policy. However, little is known about the situation in south-eastern France because the fire database contains unreliable data. We used data for cases with well-established causes from 1973–2013 to determine the location of spatial hotspots, the seasonal distribution, the underlying anthropogenic and environmental drivers and the tendency of five main causes to generate large fires. Anthropogenic ignitions were predominant (88%) near human settlements and infrastructures in the lowlands, whilst lightning-induced fires were more common in the coastal mountains. In densely populated urban areas, small summer fires were predominating, due to the negligence of private individuals around their homes or accidental ignitions near infrastructures. In rural hinterlands, ignitions due to negligence by professionals generate many medium-sized fires from autumn to spring. Intentional and accidental ignitions contribute the most to the total burned area and to large fires. We conclude that socioeconomic factors partially control the fire regime, influencing the timing, spatial distribution and potential size of fires. This improved understanding of why, where and when ignitions occur provides the opportunity for controlling certain causes of ignitions and adapting French policy to global changes.

scholarly journals Contrasting large fire activity in the French Mediterranean

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1055-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Ganteaume ◽  
Renaud Barbero
Keyword(s):  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Sharp Decrease ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Return Level ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
The West ◽  
Forest Resilience ◽  
Large Fires

Abstract. In the French Mediterranean, large fires have significant socioeconomic and environmental impacts. We used a long-term georeferenced fire time series (1958–2017) to analyze both spatial and temporal distributions of large fires (LFs; ≥100 ha). The region was impacted in some locations up to six times by recurrent LFs and 21 % of the total area burned by LFs occurred on a surface that previously burned in the past, with potential impact on forest resilience. We found contrasting patterns between the east and the west of the study area, the former experiencing fewer LFs but of a larger extent compared to the latter, with an average time of occurrence between LFs exceeding 4000 ha < 7 years mostly in the eastern coastal area and > 50 years in the west. This longitudinal gradient in LF return level contrasts with what we would expect from mean fire weather conditions strongly decreasing eastwards during the fire season but is consistent with larger fuel cover in the east, highlighting the strong role of fuel continuity in fire spread. Additionally, our analysis confirms the sharp decrease in both LF frequency and burned area in the early 1990s, due to the efficiency of fire suppression and prevention reinforced at that time, thereby weakening the functional climate–fire relationship across the region.

scholarly journals Increasing western US forest wildfire activity: sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1696) ◽  
pp. 20150178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony LeRoy Westerling
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Moisture Deficit ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Spring Snowmelt ◽  
Forest Wildfires

Prior work shows western US forest wildfire activity increased abruptly in the mid-1980s. Large forest wildfires and areas burned in them have continued to increase over recent decades, with most of the increase in lightning-ignited fires. Northern US Rockies forests dominated early increases in wildfire activity, and still contributed 50% of the increase in large fires over the last decade. However, the percentage growth in wildfire activity in Pacific northwestern and southwestern US forests has rapidly increased over the last two decades. Wildfire numbers and burned area are also increasing in non-forest vegetation types. Wildfire activity appears strongly associated with warming and earlier spring snowmelt. Analysis of the drivers of forest wildfire sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring demonstrates that forests at elevations where the historical mean snow-free season ranged between two and four months, with relatively high cumulative warm-season actual evapotranspiration, have been most affected. Increases in large wildfires associated with earlier spring snowmelt scale exponentially with changes in moisture deficit, and moisture deficit changes can explain most of the spatial variability in forest wildfire regime response to the timing of spring. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

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