OFIDIA2: An Operational Platform for Fire Danger Prevention and Monitoring †
by
, , , , and
Maria Mirto
1,*
,
Sandro Luigi Fiore
2,
Valentina Bacciu
1,3,
Costantino Sirca
1,4,
Josè Maria Costa Saura
1,4,
Sonia Scardigno
1,
Valentina Scardigno
1,
Paola Nassisi
1,
Alessandra Nuzzo
1,
Alessandro D’Anca
1,
Antonio Aloisio
1,
Giorgia Verri
1,
Giovanni Coppini
1,
Ivana Caputo
5,
Lucio Pirone
5,
Riccardo Valentini
1,6,
Donatella Spano
1,4 and
Giovanni Aloisio
1,7 1
Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (CMCC) Foundation, 73100 Lecce, Italy
2
Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento, 38122 Trento, Italy
3
Institute of BioEconomy (CNR-IBE), National Research Council, 07100 Sassari, Italy
4
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
5
Apulia Region—Civil Protection Department, 70026 Modugno, Italy
6
Department Biological AgroFood and Forest Systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
7
Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
*
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), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017004
Published: 5 August 2022
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The Third International Conference on Fire Behavior and Risk)
Preventing and fighting wildfires in the forests and rural areas of Epirus and Apulia has become increasingly demanding due to climate change and socioeconomic factors, i.e., the economic crisis, lack of fuel management, ageing population, and rural area abandonment. OFIDIA2 (Operational FIre Danger preventIon plAtform 2), funded by the Interreg Greece-Italy 2014–2020 Programme, proposed a pragmatic approach to improve the operational capacity of the stakeholders to detect and fight forest wildfires. A data analytics system was designed and implemented within the project to manage, transform, and extract knowledge from heterogenous data sources, through forecasting models such as weather, fire danger, and fire behaviour models and near-real-time data coming from different sources.
The high-resolution weather forecasting network previously developed in OFIDIA project was enhanced by using a mesoscale configuration of the WRF-ARW model over the Central Mediterranean Sea. A nested domain over Southern Italy allows for obtaining high-resolution weather forecasts (2 × 2 km) and processing data into fire danger models.
Fires, fuel, topography, and weather data were collected from several sources and used to calibrate and run fire models (FlamMap and Wildfire Analyst) in the Apulia (Italy) and Epirus (Greece) regions. Based on the analyses of recurrent weather conditions leading to large fires, fire metric maps for prevention and fire-fighting activities were produced.
Finally, a decision support system (DSS) was also developed to provide support for: (1) the acquisition of real-time data through weather stations, wireless sensor networks, HD video cameras, and drones; (2) the selection of fire behaviour scenarios by means of mathematical models; and (3) the prevention of emergencies thanks to weather forecast information with fire danger indices at high resolutions.
The project included the design of two mobile apps for sending alert notifications to the Civil Protection in case of a potential fire hazard and for the management of volunteers fleets.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization and methodology, M.M., S.L.F., V.B., C.S., J.M.C.S., G.V., G.C.; data collection, formal analysis, investigation, M.M., S.L.F., V.B., J.M.C.S., S.S., V.S., P.N., A.N., A.D., A.A., G.V., I.C., L.P.; writing—original draft preparation, M.M., V.B., J.M.C.S.; software and visualization, M.M., S.S., V.S., P.N., A.N.; supervising and revising, R.V., D.S., G.A.; supervising, revising, and funding acquisition, R.V., D.S., G.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by OFIDIA2 Project, grant number I1/2.2/02, under the Interreg V-A Greece-Italy Programme 2014–2020.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Mirto, M.; Fiore, S.L.; Bacciu, V.; Sirca, C.; Saura, J.M.C.; Scardigno, S.; Scardigno, V.; Nassisi, P.; Nuzzo, A.; D’Anca, A.; et al. OFIDIA2: An Operational Platform for Fire Danger Prevention and Monitoring. Environ. Sci. Proc. 2022, 17, 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017004
AMA Style
Mirto M, Fiore SL, Bacciu V, Sirca C, Saura JMC, Scardigno S, Scardigno V, Nassisi P, Nuzzo A, D’Anca A, et al. OFIDIA2: An Operational Platform for Fire Danger Prevention and Monitoring. Environmental Sciences Proceedings. 2022; 17(1):4. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017004
Chicago/Turabian StyleMirto, Maria, Sandro Luigi Fiore, Valentina Bacciu, Costantino Sirca, Josè Maria Costa Saura, Sonia Scardigno, Valentina Scardigno, Paola Nassisi, Alessandra Nuzzo, Alessandro D’Anca, and et al. 2022. "OFIDIA2: An Operational Platform for Fire Danger Prevention and Monitoring" Environmental Sciences Proceedings 17, no. 1: 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2022017004
