Harmonizing Wildfire Risk Assessment in Western Balkans through the IPAFF Project †
1
CIMA Research Foundation, 17100 Savona, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Astronautica, Elettrica ed Energetica (DIAEE), Università di Roma La Sapienza, 00185 Roma, Italy
3
Faculty of Security Studies, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
4
Scientific-Professional Society for Disaster Risk Management, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
5
Faculty of Security-Skopje, University St Kliment Ohridski—Bitola, 1000 Skopje, North Macedonia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the Third International Conference on Fire Behavior and Risk, Sardinia, Italy, 3–6 May 2022.
Environ. Sci. Proc. 2022, 17(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017014
Published: 9 August 2022
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The Third International Conference on Fire Behavior and Risk)
Wildfire risk assessment plays a key role in each phase of the wildfire cycle, enabling the shift from fire suppression to prevention activities while improving decisions for response and restoration activities. Moreover, it enables synergies between fire and landscape management for achieving an integrated fire management approach.
Since a wildfire’s complexity depends on different meteo-climatic, physics and human aspects, wildfire risk assessment and mapping still lack a consolidated science-based methodology (as that which exists for other natural hazards). Such a gap limits its adoption across all different authorities involved in wildfire management for local, national, and regional governments. Moreover, it affects the capacity to properly handle transboundary aspects, considering that wildfires are not limited by national borders.
The IPAFF project advances a state-of-the-art approach for forest fire risk assessment, proposing a common methodology in the Western Balkans and Turkey and empowering wildfires risk assessment capacities.
Leveraging the European guidelines on risk assessment and tightening the focus on wildfires, the analysis assesses capacities considering the following aspects: (i) the legal and institutional framework shaping roles and responsibilities of authorities for fire and landscape management at different governmental levels; (ii) coordination mechanisms and procedures; (iii) data, methods, and tools; and (iv) mobilization of technical and managerial expertise.
Each aspect is broken down into diverse criteria ranked through qualitative structured interviews addressed to a panel of key stakeholders and decision-makers in each country, identifying weaknesses and threats to be handled for developing and implementing wildfire risk assessment.
The results are elaborated in the formulation of a regional technical guideline and consolidated through focus groups participated by local authorities, research institutions, and beneficiaries of the project, all of which help to bring the guideline’s content together.
The set of recommendations for elaborating the guideline will contribute to the developing of a common regional approach for wildfire risk mapping in the Western Balkans and Turkey while considering both EU and international standards.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, P.F. and U.P.; methodology, P.F. and U.P.; investigation, P.F., U.P., V.M.C. and R.R.; writing—original draft preparation, P.F. and U.P.; writing—review and editing, V.M.C. and R.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by IPA II Multi-country Action Programme 2019, “EU Support to Flood Prevention and Forest Fires Risk Management in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, grant number Ref. Ares (2019)6016091-27/09/2019.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Fiorucci, P.; Pernice, U.; Cvetković, V.M.; Rajkovchevski, R. Harmonizing Wildfire Risk Assessment in Western Balkans through the IPAFF Project. Environ. Sci. Proc. 2022, 17, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017014
AMA Style
Fiorucci P, Pernice U, Cvetković VM, Rajkovchevski R. Harmonizing Wildfire Risk Assessment in Western Balkans through the IPAFF Project. Environmental Sciences Proceedings. 2022; 17(1):14. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017014
Chicago/Turabian StyleFiorucci, Paolo, Umberto Pernice, Vladimir M. Cvetković, and Rade Rajkovchevski. 2022. "Harmonizing Wildfire Risk Assessment in Western Balkans through the IPAFF Project" Environmental Sciences Proceedings 17, no. 1: 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017014
