7th Workshop on Forest Fire Management - EARSeL, European ...

USING SPATIAL ANALYSIS TO CHARACTERIZE AND EXPLAIN FIRE
REGIMES IN SPAIN
Abstract: The impact of wildland fires on society and the environment is
strongly associated to fire characteristics, which are classified using the
concept of fire regimes. The definition fire regimes should consider different
aspects of fire occurrence, such as fire density, fire frequency, fire size,
fire seasonality, intensity or severity. This paper presents the classification
of fire regimes in Spain using the historical fire records database of the
Spanish forest service, which are collected at a grid size of 10x10 km. Using
spatial and statistical analysis, several regions of different fire regimes were
identified.
1 - Introduction
M.V. Moreno & E. Chuvieco
Departamento de Geografía, Universidad de Alcalá,
Alcalá de Henares, Colegios 2, Spain
vanesa.moreno@uah.es; emilio.chuvieco@uah.es
Fire occurrence can not be considered as a binary process (fire/non fire),
but rather as a combination of different characteristics, which explain the
environmental and societal impact of fire. Basic aspects to define fire
regimes are the number of fires, their size, seasonality, persistency and
causality (Chuvieco et al., 2008). Understanding fire regimes is therefore
critical to alleviate the negative impacts of fire and improve post-fire management
(Morgan et al., 2001).
Spain is one of the most affected countries in Europe by forest fires, since
it has the largest forested area under Mediterranean conditions (Pausas and
Vallejo, 1999; Vélez, 2001). Recent changes in socio-economic conditions
have implied a growing occurrence of fire, while the affected area closely
depends on climatic cycles. The country has several areas with very different
fire characteristics, caused by the diversity of both social and climatic
conditions. The main goal of this paper is to characterize different fire
regimes in Spain using spatial and temporal analysis of the Spanish fire statistics.
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