Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters: Root Causes and New Management Strategies

Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters
Copyright
Contributors
Acknowledgments
1 - Extreme wildfire events: The definition
	1.1 Extreme wildfires: A true challenge for societies
		1.1.1 An escalating worldwide problem
		1.1.2 The need of a standardized definition
	1.2 EWE definition and rationale
		1.2.1 EWE definition
		1.2.2 EWE definition rationale
			1.2.2.1 The physical properties of EWEs
			1.2.2.2 The duration of an EWE
			1.2.2.3 The constraints of wildfire size
			1.2.2.4 EWE consequences are place-dependent
			1.2.2.5 EWE and disaster
	1.3 A wildfire classification: Integrating fire intensity with potential consequences
	1.4 Conclusion
	References
2 - Extreme wildfires and disasters around the world: lessons to be learned
	2.1 Introduction
	2.2 Extreme wildfire cases in Portugal
		2.2.1 The fires of Picões and Caramulo (2013)
			2.2.1.1 Picões (July 8th to 12th)
			2.2.1.2 Caramulo (August 20th to 30th)
		2.2.2 The firestorms of 2017
			2.2.2.1 Pedrógão Grande complex of fire events (June 17th to 22nd)
			2.2.2.2 October 15th fires, in central Portugal (October 15th to 22nd)
				2.2.2.2.1 Extreme wildfire event of Seia
				2.2.2.2.2 Extreme wildfire event of Lousã
				2.2.2.2.3 Extreme wildfire event of Oliveira do Hospital
				2.2.2.2.4 Extreme wildfire event of Sertã
				2.2.2.2.5 Extreme wildfire event of Vouzela
	2.3 Extreme wildfire cases in the world
		2.3.1 Greece
		2.3.2 Italy
			2.3.2.1 Peschici Fire
			2.3.2.2 Laconi (Bidda Beccia) fire
		2.3.3 Australia
		2.3.4 USA—Gatlinburg wildfires risk/crisis communications lessons learned
		2.3.5 Canada—2016 Horse River (Fort McMurray) fire
	2.4 Conclusion
	References
3 - The role of weather and climate conditions on extreme wildfires
	3.1 Introduction
	3.2 The influence of climate
		3.2.1 Fire and climate patterns
		3.2.2 Fire incidence seasonality
		3.2.3 Existence, life cycle, and type of vegetation cover
	3.3 The role of weather
		3.3.1 Physiological state of the vegetation
		3.3.2 Fire weather for ignition, spread, and extinction
		3.3.3 The influence of ridges, blockings, and other synoptic patterns
		3.3.4 Wildfire teleconnections
	3.4 The role of climatic and weather extreme events
		3.4.1 Drought period
		3.4.2 Effects of heatwaves
	3.5 Fire weather danger and risk rating
		3.5.1 Fire danger rating
		3.5.2 The Canadian Fire Weather Index
		3.5.3 Fire danger rating for operational and research purposes
	3.6 Climate change: The future of extreme wildfires
		3.6.1 Climate change projections
		3.6.2 Robust projections for the future
	3.7 Concluding remarks
	References
4 - The relation of landscape characteristics, human settlements, spatial planning, and fuel management with extreme wildfires
	4.1 Introduction
	4.2 France
		4.2.1 Landscape and property
		4.2.2 Property and land management
		4.2.3 Spatial planning
		4.2.4 Uses of fire and fire regulations
	4.3 Portugal
		4.3.1 Landscape and property
		4.3.2 Spatial planning
		4.3.3 Uses of fire and fire regulations
		4.3.4 Prevention and fuel management
	4.4 The United States of America
		4.4.1 Landscape and property
		4.4.2 Spatial planning
		4.4.3 Uses of fire and fire regulations
	4.5 Conclusion
	References
5 - Safety enhancement in extreme wildfire events
	5.1 Wildfire disasters: Trends and patterns
	5.2 Causes and circumstances leading to fatalities
		5.2.1 Causes of death
		5.2.2 Mechanisms conducting to fatalities
		5.2.3 Circumstances of fatalities
			5.2.3.1 Entrapment and burnover
			5.2.3.2 Last-minute evacuation
			5.2.3.3 Buildings loss
			5.2.3.4 People vulnerability, attitudes, and behaviors
	5.3 The safety protocols
		5.3.1 For operational staff
		5.3.2 Wildfire safety policies for civilians
			5.3.2.1 In Europe
			5.3.2.2 In North America and Australia
	5.4 BESAFE: A safety framework for citizens
		5.4.1 Before the fire
		5.4.2 During the fire
		5.4.3 After the fire
	5.5 Conclusion
	References
6 - Firefighting approaches and extreme wildfires
	6.1 Wildfire fighting approaches
		6.1.1 Development history
		6.1.2 How firefighting approaches are different and why
			6.1.2.1 Emphasis and capacity for indirect attack
			6.1.2.2 Professional versus volunteer
			6.1.2.3 Emphasis to ground versus aerial firefighting
			6.1.2.4 Type of organization (land management vs. urban/civil protection)
		6.1.3 Examples of currently existing organizational and firefighting approaches
			6.1.3.1 Greece
			6.1.3.2 Italy
			6.1.3.3 Portugal
		6.1.4 United Kingdom
	6.2 Effectiveness and efficiency considerations
	6.3 Firefighting approaches regarding extreme wildfires
	6.4 Conclusions
	References
7 - The suppression model fragilities: The “firefighting trap”
	7.1 The dominant fire management approach today: The wildfire suppression model
		7.1.1 Wildfire suppression model: rationale
		7.1.2 Suppression model dominance: why is this model so widely accepted?
	7.2 Assessment of the fire suppression model
		7.2.1 The failures of the fire suppression model
		7.2.2 Weaknesses of the suppression model
			7.2.2.1 Operational limits
			7.2.2.2 Lack of integration with prevention
			7.2.2.3 Reduced attention to fire causes
			7.2.2.4 Lack of communities' engagement
			7.2.2.5 Lack of awareness
			7.2.2.6 Building resilience
			7.2.2.7 Short-term perspective
		7.2.3 The firefighting trap
	7.3 A proactive model as a possible alternative
	7.4 Conclusions
	References
8 - Understanding wildfire mitigation and preparedness in the context of extreme wildfires and disasters: Social science contributions to understanding human response to wildfire
	8.1 Introduction
	8.2 Social science theoretical insights into preparedness and mitigation
		8.2.1 Natural hazards
		8.2.2 Societal stages of response to natural hazards
		8.2.3 Wildfire preparedness/mitigation measures
		8.2.4 Societal (macroscale)
		8.2.5 Intervening or mid-level factors (mesoscale)
		8.2.6 Individual/household (micro) scale
	8.3 Factors that influence individual protective action decisions, with reference to specific fire research findings
		8.3.1 Risk interpretation
		8.3.2 Experience
		8.3.3 Efficacy (response and self)
		8.3.4 Wildfire-specific considerations
		8.3.5 Nonwildfire considerations
		8.3.6 Evacuation decisions
	8.4 Diffusion of innovations
		8.4.1 Preventive innovations
		8.4.2 Characteristics that influence adoption of new practices
		8.4.3 Change agents
	8.5 Risk and crisis communication
		8.5.1 Interactive processes
		8.5.2 Trust
		8.5.3 Local context
	8.6 Conclusion
	References
9 - Resident and community recovery after wildfires
	9.1 Introduction
	9.2 Disaster recovery frameworks
	9.3 Wildfire recovery: Residents
		9.3.1 Honeymoon period
		9.3.2 Disillusionment
		9.3.3 Reconstruction
	9.4 Wildfire recovery: Community
		9.4.1 Early Restoration
		9.4.2 Building back better
	9.5 Conclusion
	References
10 - Wildfire policies contribution to foster extreme wildfires
	10.1 Introduction
	10.2 Shaping wildfire disasters through misguided policy
	10.3 The perpetuation of misguided fire policies
	10.4 Transforming fire management policies
	10.5 Conclusion
	Acknowledgments
	References
11 - Fire Smart Territory as an innovative approach to wildfire risk reduction
	11.1 The wildfire paradoxes
	11.2 Wildfires: An unsolved problem
	11.3 Communities and wildfires: How to reduce losses?
	11.4 Fire Smart Territory as a model to “thrive with fire”
		11.4.1 The advantages of territory scale
		11.4.2 Fire Smart Territory: The definition
		11.4.3 FST components
		11.4.4 FST: SWOT analysis
	11.5 Conclusion
	References
12 - How to create a change in wildfire policies
	12.1 Introduction
	12.2 The origins of suppression policy
	12.3 Wildfire research and policies
		12.3.1 Origins of wildfire research
		12.3.2 Changes in US wildfire policies
		12.3.3 The resistance to change: The example of Italy
	12.4 How to create a change in wildfire policies
		12.4.1 Awareness of the wildfire nature: The pyrometrics
		12.4.2 Recognition of the limits of suppression activities and making citizens aware of it
	12.5 Conclusions
	References
13 - What can we do differently about the extreme wildfire problem: An overview
	13.1 Introduction
	13.2 Looking for a new paradigm of wildfire management: Existing ideas and proposals
		13.2.1 The dual role of fire
		13.2.2 Strategic fuel management
		13.2.3 The socioecological nature of wildfires
		13.2.4 Integrated fire management and community-based fire management
		13.2.5 Comprehensive strategies and frameworks
		13.2.6 Build wildfire resilience
		13.2.7 The road ahead
	13.3 The Shared Wildfire Governance paradigm and framework
		13.3.1 The arguments of Shared Wildfire Governance paradigm and framework
		13.3.2 The description of Shared Wildfire Governance framework
		13.3.3 The strengths of Shared Wildfire Governance paradigm
	13.4 Next steps
	References
Index
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