Coordinated wildfire management: guidelines from the IPA Floods&Fires project

The new guidelines drafted by CIMA Research Foundation as part of the IPA Floods&Fires project aim to improve wildfire risk management in the Western Balkans and Turkey. These guidelines promote the integration of risk mapping into legal and institutional frameworks and encourage cross-border collaboration and the use of advanced technologies for more effective wildfire response.

Risks to human life, habitat loss, release of large amounts of greenhouse gases and particulate matter, and loss of ecosystem services are just some of the many problems posed by wildfires. This long-standing issue is being exacerbated by the climate crisis.

As with other natural phenomena influenced by climate change, it is now urgently necessary to address the risks they pose, both in emergency response and in preparation to mitigate their impacts.

With this objective, CIMA Research Foundation has drafted the Technical Guidelines for Forest Fire Risk Assessment. This document aims to promote more effective and coordinated wildfire management, ultimately strengthening community resilience by prioritizing risk mapping.

The guidelines were developed within the recently concluded IPA Floods&Fires project, which focused on reducing the risk of floods and wildfires in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) and Turkey. "In this context, it was important to provide concrete tools to strengthen risk management capacities and identify priority areas for implementing prevention measures aimed at mitigating the impacts of wild and rural fires. Thus, the guidelines for assessing and mapping wildfire risk in the project areas were created," explain Andrea Trucchia and Paolo Fiorucci, CIMA's researchers and authors of the report.

The guidelines begin with an analysis of the territorial and climatic context, an essential element for effective risk assessment. This represents a challenge when the geographic area of reference is as vast as it is in this case. The Western Balkans and Turkey contain different biogeographical zones, characterized by diverse climates and ecosystems. Like many other regions of Europe, this area has experienced a significant impact over the years from the abandonment of traditional agricultural and forestry activities. This has led to an increase in forest cover-a positive aspect for biodiversity conservation, but also a factor that must be considered when discussing wildfire risk.

"The Balkan context has proven globally vulnerable to wildfires, a vulnerability exacerbated by both the climate crisis and land management. Thus, a coordinated and adaptive approach is needed to address climate change and protect natural resources and local communities," say Trucchia and Fiorucci.

Following this analysis, CIMA's researchers present methods and applications for risk mapping. This overview serves as a tool for standardizing common methodologies, in line with EU standards, to facilitate cross-border cooperation. Special attention is given to technological innovation: machine learning techniques, in particular, are increasingly attractive for wildfire risk reduction studies. This consideration is also based on the experience of CIMA Research Foundation using machine learning for large-scale evaluations, such as in the eastern Mediterranean.

"Based on our analysis, we have drafted common guidelines to improve risk management in the areas involved in the IPA Floods&Fires project. With adaptations that consider local characteristics, these can also serve as a methodological reference for other regions," Trucchia and Fiorucci explain. "Globally, this work highlights the importance of incorporating procedures and tools for wildfire risk mapping into legal and institutional frameworks at all levels, from national to local. In this context, it is also crucial to emphasize the importance of data sharing, both within and between countries." Moreover, wildfire risk mapping should be integrated into Early Warning Systems and wildfire simulation tools, thus focusing attention on priority areas implementing prevention and preparedness protocols, allowing for faster and more effective detection and response to reduce damage from uncontrolled fire events.

The final recommendation of the guidelines is very clear: collaboration between land management and wildfire management needs to be strengthened, with data sharing and protocols supporting both joint forest management planning and the management of transboundary wildfire events. "Natural phenomena ignore political boundaries: when it comes to risk reduction, we must learn to do the same," conclude Trucchia and Fiorucci.