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http://hdl.handle.net/2445/159769
Title: | Wildfire management in Mediterranean-type regions: paradigm change needed |
Author: | Moreira, Francisco Ascoli, Davide Safford, Hugh Adams, Mark A. Moreno, José M. Pereira, José M.C. Catry, Felipe X. Armesto, Juan Bond, William González, Mauro E. Curt, Thomas Koutsias, Nikos McCaw, Lachlan Price, Owen Pausas, Juli G. Rigolot, Eric Stephens, Scott Tavsanoglu, Cagatay Vallejo, V. Ramón (Victoriano Ramón) Wilgen, Brian W. Van Xanthopoulos, Gavriil Fernandes, Paulo. M. |
Keywords: | Incendis forestals Mediterrània (Regió) Forest fires Mediterranean Region |
Issue Date: | 7-Jan-2020 |
Publisher: | Institut of Physics |
Abstract: | During the last decades, climate and land use changes led to an increased prevalence of megafires in Mediterranean-type climate regions (MCRs). Here, we argue that current wildfire management policies in MCRs are destined to fail. Focused on fire suppression, these policies largely ignore ongoing climate warming and landscape-scale buildup of fuels. The result is a 'firefighting trap' that contributes to ongoing fuel accumulation precluding suppression under extreme fire weather, and resulting in more severe and larger fires. We believe that a 'business as usual' approach to wildfire in MCRs will not solve the fire problem, and recommend that policy and expenditures be rebalanced between suppression and mitigation of the negative impacts of fire. This requires a paradigm shift: policy effectiveness should not be primarily measured as a function of area burned (as it usually is), but rather as a function of avoided socio-ecological damage and loss. |
Note: | Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab541e |
It is part of: | Environmental Research Letters, 2020, vol. 15, p. 011001 |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2445/159769 |
Related resource: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab541e |
ISSN: | 1748-9326 |
Appears in Collections: | Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals) |
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