Integrated Wildfire Management: From Fire Behaviour Science to Operational Response

Dear Colleagues,

Wildfires are becoming increasingly complex and destructive due to climate change, land-use changes, fuel accumulation and the expansion of the wildland–urban interface. Recent extreme wildfire events observed across Mediterranean Europe, North and South America, Australia and other fire-prone regions have demonstrated the urgent need for integrated approaches that combine advances in fire behaviour science with operational decision-making and emergency response.

Over the past decades, significant progress has been made in understanding wildfire dynamics, fire–atmosphere interactions, extreme fire behaviour, fuel characterization, suppression effectiveness, prescribed burning and risk assessment methodologies. At the same time, operational agencies are increasingly relying on scientific tools such as fire spread models, remote sensing, decision-support systems, artificial intelligence and real-time situational awareness technologies to support wildfire management and improve firefighter safety.

Despite these advances, an important gap still exists between scientific research and operational implementation. Scientific findings are not always effectively translated into practical tools or operational strategies, while field-based experiences and practitioner knowledge are often underrepresented in the scientific literature. Strengthening the science–policy–practitioner interface is therefore essential to improve wildfire preparedness, response, suppression effectiveness and landscape resilience.

This Special Issue aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, operational agencies and policymakers to share innovative research and practical experiences that contribute to integrated wildfire management strategies across different ecosystems and geographical regions.

The aim of this Special Issue is to gather high-quality original research, review papers, case studies, technical reports and operational perspectives addressing the integration of wildfire science, technology and operational response within the broader framework of wildfire management.

The Special Issue seeks contributions that bridge the gap between fundamental fire behaviour research and real-world operational applications, with particular emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches that improve wildfire prediction, prevention, preparedness, suppression and post-fire recovery.

The proposed topic strongly aligns with the scope of Fire, particularly within the section “Fire Research at the Science–Policy–Practitioner Interface”. The issue will contribute to advancing knowledge on how scientific developments can support evidence-based decision-making, improve operational efficiency and enhance resilience to extreme wildfire events.

Suggested themes include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Wildfire behaviour and extreme fire dynamics
- Fire–atmosphere interactions
- Operational fire spread prediction and modelling
- Decision-support systems for wildfire management
- Fire suppression strategies and tactics
- Prescribed burning and fuel management
- Wildland–urban interface fires
- Remote sensing and real-time wildfire monitoring
- Firefighter safety and human factors
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in wildfire management
- Risk assessment and wildfire resilience
- Post-fire analysis and recovery strategies
- Science-informed wildfire policy and governance
- Integration of practitioner knowledge into wildfire science
- Case studies of major wildfire events and operational lessons learned

Article types may include the following:

- Original research articles
- Review papers
- Technical and methodological papers
- Operational and case-study reports
- Perspectives and commentary articles

Prof. Dr. André Rodrigues
Prof. Dr. Jorge Rafael Nogueira Raposo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• wildfire management
• fire behaviour
• extreme wildfire events
• fire suppression
• prescribed burning
• decision-support systems
• fire modelling
• firefighter safety
• wildland–urban interface
• operational wildfire response