Exploring the mega-fire reality 2011

In many parts of the world both the area and intensity of wildland fires have been growing alarmingly. However, it is not only the number of fires that are changing, but it is also the nature of these fires that are changing. Global warming, over-accumulation of fuels in fire-prone forests, and growth at the wildland-urban interface all suggest that the fire protection strategies we have used in the past may no longer serve us so well in the future.

The conference brings together experts from around the world and addresses the following major topics:

- Mega-fires: why is their frequency increasing?
- Why Mega-fires require special understanding and approaches
- Perspectives and lessons learned from around the world
- Choices and options before and after Mega-fires

Specific topics include:

- Fire activity over Africa and Mediterranean Europe based on information from Meteosat-8
- Modeling forest fire incidence in the wildland-urban interface (WUI): A case study in southern Italy
- A spatially explicit and quantitative assessment of the socioeconomic vulnerability to fire using GIS
- Incorporating fire risk into valuation of habitat damages following a catastrophic forest fire
- Institutional fire landscapes in Calakmul, Mexico: The human responses to forest fires in protected areas
- Megafires in Portugal: Contribution for sustained changes in wildfire management
- The economic effects of large wildfires: A mixed methods analysis of the 2008 fires in Trinity County, California
- Improvement of forest fire risk zone mapping using remote sensing and geographic information systems
- Prevention of mega-fires in Spain: Wildfire community perception from EU-FireSmart project