Exploring Land System Options to Enhance Fire Resilience under Different Land Morphologies
Author:
Silva João Ferreira1ORCID, Pena Selma B.1ORCID, Cunha Natália S.1ORCID, Ribeiro Paulo Flores2ORCID, Moreira Francisco345, Santos José Lima2
Affiliation:
1. Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Associate Laboratory TERRA, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal 2. Forest Research Centre, Associate Laboratory TERRA, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal 3. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal 4. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal 5. BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
Abstract
Fire is the origin of serious environmental and social impacts in Mediterranean-like landscapes, such as those in California, Australia, and southern Europe. Portugal is one of the southern European countries most affected by fire, which has increased in intensity and extent in the recent decades in response to variations in climate, but mostly due to changes in land systems (LSs), characterized by land use and land cover and also by factors such as management intensity, livestock composition, land ownership structure, and demography. Agricultural activities, which contributed to the management of fuel in the overall landscape, were allocated to the most productive areas, while the steepest areas were occupied by extensive areas of shrubland and monospecific forests, creating landscapes of high fire-proneness. These challenging circumstances call for landscape transformation actions focusing on reducing the burned area, but the spatial distribution of LS is highly conditioned by land morphology (LM), which limits the actions (e.g., farming operations) that can be taken. Considering the constraints posed by the LM, this study investigates whether there is a possibility of transforming the landscape by single modifying the LS from more to less fire prone. To better understand landscape–fire relationships, the individual and interactive effects of the LS and LM on burned areas were also analyzed. Even in the more fire-prone LM types, a 40% proportion of agricultural uses in the landscape results in an effective reduction in the burned area.
Funder
National Funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.
Subject
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous),Safety Research,Environmental Science (miscellaneous),Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality,Building and Construction,Forestry
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