Establishment of a Risk and Resilience Assessment Center in the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Greece: The Wildfire Hazard Module †
by
, , , , , , ,
Giorgos Mallinis
1,*
,
Irene Chrysafis
1,2,
Christos Damianidis
1,2,
Vassileios Giannakopoulos
1,2,
Ioannis Mitsopoulos
1,2,
Christos Akratos
2,3,
Eugenia Bezirtzoglou
2,4,
Constantinos Chalioris
2,3
,
Konstantinos Chouvardas
2,5,
Lazaros Iliadis
2,3,
Fotios Maris
2,3,
Vasileios Margaris
2,6,
Anastasia Paschalidou
2,7,
Angelos Protopapas
2,3,
Nikolaos Klimis
2,3 and
Ioannis Dokas
2,3 1
School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
2
Risk & Resilience Assessment Center (RiskAC), Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
3
School of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
4
Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece
5
Department of Civil Protection, Region of East Macedonia and Thrace, 69100 Komotini, Greece
6
Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, 55102 Thessaloniki, Greece
7
Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece
*
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), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017003
Published: 5 August 2022
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The Third International Conference on Fire Behavior and Risk)
The Risk and Resilience Assessment Center (RiskAC) research project is a joint effort of more than 80 researchers from Departments of the Democritus University of Thrace, the Aristotle University and from the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering. The aim of the project is to strengthen the risk and resilience decision-making process in the Prefecture of East Macedonia and Thrace in Greece. Considering the magnitude and the frequency of the fire events, as well as the vulnerability of human, technological and environmental assets within the area, the RiskAC gives particular emphasis to the development of the necessary capacity for management and mitigation of wildfire-associated risks.
To do so, an integrated approach has been followed. Following the definition of the appropriate fuel classification scheme, fuel models were developed for the Region of East Macedonia—Thrace by measuring the field fuel parameters in representative natural fuel complexes.
The spatial extent of the different fuel types was extracted through a random forest classification of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and topographic variables. The synergistic use of this data resulted to an overall accuracy of 91.57%.
Subsequently, the Minimum Travel Time (MTT) algorithm was applied as part of the wildfire risk analysis focusing on different spatial elements of significant value (natural, cultural, etc.). As a result of this analysis, Burn Probability (BP), Conditional Flame Length (CFL), Fire Size (FS), and Source–Sink Ratio (SSR) were spatially and explicitly assessed.
The outputs of this analysis will be used for decision-making for short-term predictions of wildfire risk at an operational level, contributing to wildfire suppression and management within the Prefecture of East Macedonia and Thrace. In addition, it will provide the baseline data for setting up workflows and processing pipelines, that will allow information updates and wildfire hazard analysis in future.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, G.M. and I.D.; methodology, G.M.; software, I.C., G.M., V.G. and I.M.; validation, C.D.; writing—original draft preparation, G.M., I.,C., V.G. and C.D.; writing—review and editing, E.B., C.C., K.C., L.I., F.M., V.M., A.P. (Anastasia Paschalidou) and A.P. (Angelos Protopapas); supervision, G.M.; project administration, I.D., N.K. and C.A.; funding acquisition, I.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
We acknowledge support of this work by the project “Risk and Resilience Assessment Center—Prefecture of East Macedonia and Thrace—Greece.” (MIS 5047293) which is implemented under the Action “Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure”, funded by the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014–2020) and co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Mallinis, G.; Chrysafis, I.; Damianidis, C.; Giannakopoulos, V.; Mitsopoulos, I.; Akratos, C.; Bezirtzoglou, E.; Chalioris, C.; Chouvardas, K.; Iliadis, L.; et al. Establishment of a Risk and Resilience Assessment Center in the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Greece: The Wildfire Hazard Module. Environ. Sci. Proc. 2022, 17, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017003
AMA Style
Mallinis G, Chrysafis I, Damianidis C, Giannakopoulos V, Mitsopoulos I, Akratos C, Bezirtzoglou E, Chalioris C, Chouvardas K, Iliadis L, et al. Establishment of a Risk and Resilience Assessment Center in the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Greece: The Wildfire Hazard Module. Environmental Sciences Proceedings. 2022; 17(1):3. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017003
Chicago/Turabian StyleMallinis, Giorgos, Irene Chrysafis, Christos Damianidis, Vassileios Giannakopoulos, Ioannis Mitsopoulos, Christos Akratos, Eugenia Bezirtzoglou, Constantinos Chalioris, Konstantinos Chouvardas, Lazaros Iliadis, and et al. 2022. "Establishment of a Risk and Resilience Assessment Center in the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Greece: The Wildfire Hazard Module" Environmental Sciences Proceedings 17, no. 1: 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017003
