Abstract
Areas where urban and wildland intermingle, known as wildland-urban interface (WUI), are increasing worldwide over the last decades (Theobald and Romme 2007; Montiel and Herrero 2010). These WUI areas are of particular concern in forest fire risk management because the presence of housing developments in contact with forestlands increases the likelihood of a fire starting as a consequence of human activities. In Spain, for example, there is increasing evidence that the wildland-urban interface constitutes a highly risk prone area (Herrero et al. 2012; Chas-Amil et al. 2013). Given the recognised role of land cover distribution in fire risk (Bajocco and Ricotta 2008; Oliveira et al. 2013), this paper evaluates recent fire activity across different land cover categories, and the causes and motivations, comparing WUI and non-WUI areas. Fire data were collected in Galicia, Spain, where fires are mostly due to deliberately-caused ignitions. We show that arsonist are more likely to ignited a fire in WUI areas than in non-WUI; and the same seems to be true for fires ignited by agricultural activities. Moreover, land cover types only have a significant impact on the patterns of fire occurrence in WUI areas.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Advances in forest fire research |
Editors | Domingos Xavier Viegas |
Publisher | Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra |
Pages | 657-664 |
Number of pages | 8 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-989-26-0884-6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- fire hazard, land-use cover, wildland-urban interface, intentional-caused fires