Table Of ContentEarth Observation of Wildland Fires
in Mediterranean Ecosystems
Emilio Chuvieco
Editor
Earth Observation
of Wildland Fires
in Mediterranean Ecosystems
123
Editor
Prof.Dr.EmilioChuvieco
UniversidadAlcaladeHenares
FacultadFilosofiayLetras
Depto.Geografia
CalleColegios,2
22801AlcaladeHenares
Spain
[email protected]
ISBN978-3-642-01753-7 e-ISBN978-3-642-01754-4
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-01754-4
SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork
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Foreword
Iffirebreakout,andcatchinthorns,sothatthestacksofcorn,orthestandingcorn,orthe
field,beconsumedtherewith;hethatkindledthefireshallsurelymakerestitution(Exodus,
22,6).
Fire was one of the most precious instrument that humans learned to dominate in
theearlystagesofcivilization,asourceofheatandlight,aninstrumentforcooking
and warming. It was such an indispensable component of the ordinary living that
wehavenamedourmostprivatespacetostayastheplacewherethefireconsumes
(“hogar”,“fogar”,“foyer”,fromtheLatinname“focus”,fire).
However,firehasnotonlybeahousetool,butapowerfulmeanforextensiveland
clearing. The expansion of agricultural colonization has been commonly preceded
and followed by biomass burning. As the human footprint extended, the Earth’s
vegetation has been shaped by fire, which is now a critical factor to understand
ecosystemsfunctioningworldwide.
Thetraditionalusesoffire,moldedbymillenniaofhuman-natureinterrelation-
ships,haverecentlybeenaffectedbysharpchanges,bothinthewayhumansusethe
land and in the climatic conditions that also impacted fires in natural cycles. New
challengesintheinteractionsbetweenfireandhumansarise.Firebecomesnotonly
atoolbutalsoarisk,affectinghumanlives,propertiesandecosystemsattemporal
scaleswheretheimpactsaremoredetrimental.
TheMediterraneanhasbeenaprivilegedscenarioofthislonghistoryofhuman-
firerelationships.Mediterraneanclimatesarecharacterizedbydryandhotsummers,
whichcreatefavorableconditionsforfireoutbreaks.Thepresenceoffireisevident
both in historic testimonies as well as in the shaping of Mediterranean vegetation
communities, which are well adapted to fire impacts. However, recent changes in
traditionalhumanlandusesandinclimateconditionscreatenewchallengesforfire
management. To review some of those new conditions and propose new tools to
monitorthemarethemainobjectivesofthisbook.
The first initiative to edit this book came as a result of an offering from the
SpringereditorialtoupdatethecontentsofanothervolumeIeditedin1999,named
“Remote Sensing of Large Wildfires in the European Mediterranean Basin”. In
fact, this new text should be considered rather more as a new book than as an
update,sincethescopehasbeenbroadenedand,asaresult,mostofthecontributors
v
vi Foreword
changed.SatelliteEarthObservationtechniquesarestillwidelycoveredinthistext,
butadditionalchaptershavebeenincludedtopresentawiderpanoramaoffiredan-
ger conditions and fire impacts on the Mediterranean. Among these new contribu-
tionsarethechaptersdedicatedtofirepropagationandfireemissions.Additionally,
a global ecological context of fire has been introduced, along with the presenta-
tionofproblemsassociatedtofiremanagementinotherMediterraneanareasofthe
world(ChileandCalifornia).
Thebookincludes13chaptersandanextensivelistofreferences,thatarecom-
piledattheendofthetexttoavoidduplicationsofthedifferentchapters.Illustrations
try to provide a visual image of some of the products generated by the proposed
methods, as well as the impacts of fires in different Mediterranean landscapes. A
separateplatesectionhasbeenincludedwiththecolorfigures.Theyarequotedin
thedifferentchapterswithanasterisk(∗).
I sincerely thank the effort of all authors to provide the most recent reviews on
the different topics covered in the text. I hope the book will help fire managers,
scientists and the general public to better understands fire risk conditions and fire
impactsinMediterraneanareas,toreducetheirnegativeeffectsandtakeadvantage
oftheirpositiveones.
AlcaládeHenares,Spain EmilioChuvieco
February2009
Contents
1 GlobalImpactsofFire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
EmilioChuvieco
2 EternalFlame:AnIntroductiontotheFireHistory
oftheMediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
StephenJ.Pyne
3 FiresandLandscapeConservationinMediterranean
Ecosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
JanW.vanWagtendonk
4 MappingFireRiskinMediterraneanEcosystemsofCalifornia:
Vegetationtype,Density,InvasiveSpecies,andFireFrequency . . 41
SusanL.Ustin,DavidRiaño,AlexanderKoltunov,
DarA.Roberts,andPhilipE.Dennison
5 FireDanger,FireDetection,QuantificationofBurned
AreasandDescriptionofPost-FireVegetationinthe
CentralAreaofChile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
DanteCortiGonzálezandRobertoCastroRios
6 WeatherFactorsandFireDangerintheMediterranean . . . . . . 71
AndreaCamiaandGiuseppeAmatulli
7 EstimationofFuelConditionsforFireDangerAssessment . . . . . 83
EmilioChuvieco,JanWagtendonk,DavidRiaño,MartaYebra,
andSusanL.Ustin
8 ImpactsofFireonSociety:ExtremeFirePropagationIssues. . . . 97
DomingosX.Viegas,L.M.Ribeiro,M.T.Viegas,L.P.Pita,
andC.Rossa
9 EffectsofFireonVegetation,SoilandHydrogeomorphological
BehaviorinMediterraneanEcosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
FernandoPérez-Cabello,MaríaTeresaEcheverría,
PalomaIbarra,andJuandelaRiva
vii
viii Contents
10 RemoteSensingofBurnSeverity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
IoannisZ.Gitas,AngeladeSantis,andGeorgeH.Mitri
11 HumanFactorsofFireOccurrenceintheMediterranean . . . . . 149
VittorioLeone,RaffaellaLovreglio,M.PilarMartín,
JesúsMartínez,andLaraVilar
12 ForestFireEmissionsandAirPollutioninSouthernEurope . . . . 171
AnaI.Miranda,CarlosBorrego,HelenaMartins,VeraMartins,
JorgeH.Amorim,JoanaValenteandAnabelaCarvalho
13 ForestFiresintheEuropeanMediterraneanRegion:Mapping
andAnalysisofBurnedAreas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
JesúsSan-Miguel-Ayanz,JoseM.C.Pereira,RobertoBoca,
PeterStrobl,JanKuceraandAnssiPekkarinen
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
ColourPlateSection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
List of Contributors
GiuseppeAmatulli InstituteforEnvironmentandSustainability,JointResearch
Centre,EuropeanCommission,Ispra(VA),Italy,[email protected]
JorgeH.Amorim CESAM,DepartmentofEnvironmentandPlanning,University
ofAveiro,Aveiro,Portugal,[email protected]
RobertoBoca InstituteforEnvironmentandSustainability,JointResearchCentre,
EuropeanCommission,Ispra(Va),Italy,[email protected]
CarlosBorrego CESAM,DepartmentofEnvironmentandPlanning,University
ofAveiro,Aveiro,Portugal,[email protected]
AndreaCamia InstituteforEnvironmentandSustainability,JointResearch
Centre,EuropeanCommission,Ispra(VA),Italy,[email protected]
AnabelaCarvalho CESAM,DepartmentofEnvironmentandPlanning,
UniversityofAveiro,Aveiro,Portugal,[email protected]
EmilioChuvieco DepartmentofGeography,UniversityofAlcalá,Spain,
[email protected]
JuandelaRiva DepartmentofGeographyandLandManagement,Universityof
Zaragoza,Zaragoza,Spain,[email protected]
AngeladeSantis DepartmentofGeography,UniversityofAlcala,Madrid,Spain,
[email protected]
PhilipE.Dennison UniversityofUtah,SaltLakeCity,UT,USA,
[email protected]
MaríaTeresaEcheverría DepartmentofGeographyandLandManagement,
UniversityofZaragoza,Zaragoza,Spain,[email protected]
IoannisZ.Gitas LaboratoryofForestManagementandRemoteSensing,
AristotleUniversityofThessaloniki,Thessaloniki,Greece,[email protected]
DanteCortiGonzález ForestryInstituteofChile(INFOR),Chile,
[email protected]
ix
x ListofContributors
PalomaIbarra DepartmentofGeographyandLandManagement,Universityof
Zaragoza,Zaragoza,Spain,[email protected]
StephenJ.Pyne ArizonaStateUniversity,Tempe,AZ,USA,
[email protected]
AlexanderKoltunov UniversityofCalifornia,Davis,CA,USA,
[email protected]
JanKucera InstituteforEnvironmentandSustainability,JointResearchCentre,
EuropeanCommission,Ispra(Va),Italy,[email protected]
VittorioLeone DepartmentofCropSystems,ForestryandEnvironmental
Sciences,UniversityofBasilicata,CampusMacchiaRomana,85100Potenza,
Italy,[email protected]
RaffaellaLovreglio DepartmentofCropSystems,ForestryandEnvironmental
Sciences,UniversityofBasilicata,CampusMacchiaRomana,85100Potenza,
Italy,[email protected]
M.PilarMartín CentreforHumanandSocialSciences,SpanishCouncilfor
ScientificResearch,Madrid,Spain,[email protected]
JesúsMartínez PyreneanInstituteofEcology,SpanishCouncilforScientific
Research,Zaragoza,Spain,[email protected]
HelenaMartins CESAM,DepartmentofEnvironmentandPlanning,University
ofAveiro,Aveiro,Portugal,[email protected]
VeraMartins CESAM,DepartmentofEnvironmentandPlanning,Universityof
Aveiro,Aveiro,Portugal,[email protected]
AnaI.Miranda CESAM,DepartmentofEnvironmentandPlanning,University
ofAveiro,Aveiro,Portugal,[email protected]
GeorgeH.Mitri LaboratoryofForestManagementandRemoteSensing,
AristotleUniversityofThessaloniki,Thessaloniki,Greece,[email protected]
AnssiPekkarinen FinnishForestResearchInstitute,NationalForestInventory,
Finland,anssi.pekkarinen@metla.fi
JoseM.C.Pereira DepartmentofForestry,SchoolofAgronomy,Technical
UniversityofLisbon,Lisbon,Portugal,[email protected]
FernandoPérez-Cabello DepartmentofGeographyandLandManagement,
UniversityofZaragoza,Zaragoza,Spain,[email protected]
L.P.Pita CEIF-ADAI,UniversityofCoimbra,Portugal,[email protected]
DavidRiaño NationalResearchCouncil,Madrid,Spain;UniversityofCalifornia,
Davis,CA,USA,[email protected]
L.M.Ribeiro CEIF-ADAI,UniversityofCoimbra,Portugal,[email protected]
