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

Using spatial analysis to characterize and explain fire regimes in Spain 23
very associated to extended summer drought conditions, with higher
impact in 1985, 1989, 1991 and 1994.
Fire severity. Most fires were very small in size (43.8% burned less than 1
ha), and they affect a fairly limited area (0.8% of total burned area). In
the opposite side, fires above 500 has only account for 0.4% of the total
number of fires, but they burned a high proportion of the total affected
area (41.4%). Fire sizes tend to be bigger in the Mediterranean coast, as a
result of climatic influences (continental dry winds, heat waves).
4 - Conclusions and future work
This paper is a first attempt to characterize fire regimes in Spain using fire
metrics derived from the historical fire records collected by the Spanish forest
service. Spatial and temporal variations have been considered, as well
as different patterns of fire size and seasonality. Few large fires have the
greater impact, while a large number of fires are very small and have little
influence. The spatial and temporal patterns need to be explained using
socio-economic and environmental factors, mainly those related to agricultural
practices, land abandonment and drought cycles.
Future work should focus on those explanation factors, based on auxiliary
variables within a GIS. Additionally, fire metrics should serve as an input
for a classification of fire regimes in the country, which should be the basis
for estimation current and future impacts of fire on society and ecosystems.
References
Chuvieco, E., Giglio, L., and Justice, C., 2008. Global characterization of fire
activity: toward defining fire regimes from Earth observation data. Global
Change Biology, 14, 1488-1502.
Diego, C., Carracedo, V., García, J.C. and Pacheco, S., 2004. Clima, prácticas
culturales e incendios en Cantabria. In García, J.C., Diego, C., Fdez.
de Arróyabe, P., Garmendia, C. y Rasilla, D. (Eds.), 2004. El Clima entre
el Mar y la Montaña. Asociación Española de Climatología Universidad
de Cantabria,, Santander. Serie A, nº 4
Morgan, P., Hardy, C.C., Swetnam, T.W., Rollins, B. and Long, D.G., 2001.
Mapping fire regimes across time and space: Understanding coarse and
fire-scale fire patterns. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 10, 329-
342.
Pausas, J.G. and Vallejo, V.R., 1999. The role of fire in European
Mediterranean Ecosystems. In Chuvieco E. (ed.) Remote sensing of large
wildfires in the European Mediterranean basin. Springer-Verlag. 3-6
Vélez, R., 2001. Fire situation in Spain. In Global Forest Fire Assessment
1990-2000. FAO, Roma.