the forest fire danger prediction for the alpine forest heritage ...

Partner
The project partners are 14 public institutions from Alpine Space regions: weather services, fire brigades,
universities, regional/national authorities in charge of prevention, forestry services.
Regional Agency for Environmental
Protection of Piedmont (I)
www.arpa.piemonte.it
Regione Piemonte
Forest Policy Dept. (I)
www.regione.piemonte.it
Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia
Regional Civil Protection (I)
www.protezionecivile.fvg.it
Regione Veneto - Directorate
for Forest and Mountain Economy (I)
www.regione.veneto.it
Slovenian Forestry Institute (SI)
www.gozdis.si
Test and Research Center of the Entente
for the Mediterranean Forest (F)
www.valabre-ceren.org
Central Institute for Meteorology
and Geodynamics (AT)
www.zamg.ac.at
Regional Agency for Development
of Agriculture and Forestry (I)
www.ersaf.lombardia.it
The forest fire danger prediction for
the alpine forest heritage conservancy
Technical University of Munich,
Institute of Ecoclimatology (D)
https://portal.mytum.de/welcome
University of Natural Resources and
Applied Life Sciences, Department
of Forest and Soil Sciences, Institute
of Silviculture (AT) - www.boku.ac.at
Sezione forestale cantonale,
Divisione dell’ambiente, Dipartimento
del Territorio, Cantone Ticino (CH)
www.ti.ch/forestali
Fire brigade federation
of Canton Ticino (CH)
www.pompieriticino.ch
Swiss Federal Research Institute (CH)
www.wsl.ch
Regional development agency
of Gorenjska region - BSC, Business
support centre ltd. Kranj (SI)
www.bsc-kranj.si
Observers
National Department for civil Protection (I)
www.protezionecivile.it
Global Fire Monitoring Center (D)
www.fire.uni-freiburg.de
Meteoswiss (CH),
www.meteoschweiz.admin.ch/web/it/
meteo.html
Environmental Agency of Slovenia (SI)
www.arso.gov.si
Amt fur Wald Graubunden (CH)
www.gr.ch
Canton du Valais (CH)
www.vs.ch
Bavarian Ministry of Food,
Agriculture and Forestry (D)
www.lwf.bayern.de
Préfecture Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (F)
www.paca.pref.gouv.fr
Regione Lombardia (I)
www.regione.lombardia.it
Météo-France (F)
www.meteo.fr
Regione Autonoma Fiuli Venezia Giulia,
Direzione centrale risorse agricole,
naturali e forestali - www.regione.fvg.it
Federal Office for the Environment (CH)
www.bafu.admin.ch
Local Partners
Institute for forestry and environment (I)
www.ipla.org
Environmental Protection
Regional Agency (I)
www.arpalombardia.it
University of Padua, Department of Land
and Agroforestry Systems (I)
www.tesaf.unipd.it
Regional Agency for Environmental
Protection and Prevention of the Veneto (I)
www.arpa.veneto.it
The ALP FFIRS project is co-funded by the EU INTERREG Alpine Space 2007-2013
Programme under the priority 3 “Environment and risk prevention”
Arpa Piemonte - Area Previsione e Monitoraggio Ambientale - Via Pio VII, 9 - 10135 Torino (I) - sc05@arpa.piemonte.it
www.alpffirs.eu

The alpine forest fires
During the last decades the frequency
of forest fires showed a large increase:
nearly 20.000 ha of Alpine forests, in addition
to grasslands and non forestry areas,
are burned each year. Forest fires affect
most of the alpine regions in Winter
and early Spring, nevertheless frequency
and burned area are increasing also in
Summer, probably due to the global warming.
At this stage forest fires are already
threatening the forest heritage of the
Alps. Forest fires influence the vegetation
composition and structure
of any given location;
fire shapes the
landscape and
influences biogeochemical
cycles such
as the carbon
cycle
and soil
processes.
The impacts
of
forest fires
affect the ecosystems
severely
by soil erosion as
possible trigger for landslides
and loss of soil fertility.
The effects on biodiversity, human safety
and mountain economy play an important
role in rural development.
The social and economic expenditures
of dealing with sprouted fires in the alpine
regions are rapidly increasing and are not
in accordance with a sustainabile development.
In future the situation could get out of
control caused by rising temperatures,
more frequent and severe droughts and
other weather extremes due to climate
change. Furthermore the occurrence of
forest fires will be intensified as a consequence
of booming turism, overexploitation
and mountain depopulation in the
Southern Alps. Therefore actions must
have to be substantially enhanced.
The ALP FFIRS
objectives
ce critical conditions, favourable to forest
fire triggering and spreading.
The system will provide actors involved
in forest fire prevention and suppression,
as well as the general public, with enhanced
and more accurate predictions of
forest fire danger. Methodologically similar
and standardised actions can thus be
ensured, through cooperation between
partners, such as preparedness plans.
Project description
The project aims to improve forest
fire prevention under a changing climate
in the Alpine Space, by creating a shared
warning system based on weather conditions.
The fire regime at any given location
is the result of complex interactions
between fuels, social issues, topography,
ignitions and weather conditions.
The analysis of fires frequency and
distribution will allow to model forest fire
danger in the alpine region. The definition
of a univocal Alpine Forest Fire Danger
Project management
Climate Change Impact
• Meteorological dataset for the control period
• Regional climate scenarios and common
methodology for downscaling
• Statistical study about climate change impact
on alpine fires by fire indices
• Common methodology assess future impact to
forest fires due to changes in: lightning, forest
vegetation, snow cover, socio-economic patterns
• Maps of potential soil erosion of burnt areas
Procedures & Training
The overall objective of the ALP FFIRS
project is to control and reduce the forest
fire hazard in the Alpine environment considerably,
through prevention and mitigation
actions. The project aims to develop
a multi-referential innovative service that
supports forest fire management, above
all in prevention activities and in the mitigation
of the negative impacts on the Alpine
forests.
The ambitious goal of ALP FFIRS is to
set up a framework for a common warning
system for forest fire danger rating
in the whole Alpine region taking into account
weather conditions and vegetation
patterns.
The decision support tool will consist
of a daily fire danger level assessment
and forecast in order to identify in advan-
Scale will support
the interpretation
of danger
thresholds as
enhancement
of emergency
plans and operational
procedures.
Due to the
debate on climate
change, forest fires
as potential disturbance
have become an
issue in the Alpine region over
the last decade.
An Alpine network on forest fire impact
mitigation will be assembled reflecting
common policies in risk prevention
management, by fostering mutual aid in
prevention, prepardeness and suppression
procedures.
Warning System Implementation
• Unique shared Alpine Forest Fire Danger Scale
• Common system for forest fire danger rating and
warning in the Alps, operated locally
• Weather data/fire occurrence dataset,
integrated climatological and forestry maps
• Improve the monitoring of weather
parameters required for forest fire prevention
• Methodological approach of spatially
high resolution mapping of meteorological data sharing
• Common protocol for alerting and operational procedures according to fire danger conditions
• Mutual aid measures in vigilance and extinction
• Recommendation paper for institutional bodies
• Training of operative personnel
• Procedures guideline for end users
Information & Publicity