ODET kicks off to boost Europe’s preparedness for extreme wildfires

The ODETopens in new tab project (Open Decision‑making system for enhancing Europe’s preparedness and response capacities to ExTreme wildfires) has held its kick‑off meeting on 23 and 24 March, formally marking its launch. Funded by the European Union under the UCPM 2025 KAPP call, the project aims to strengthen Europe’s ability to anticipate and respond to extreme wildfire behaviour.

Extreme wildfires are rare but devastating events, driven by complex interactions between fire behaviour and atmospheric dynamics. Emergency services face difficulties predicting such events due to limited knowledge, high uncertainty, and insufficient operational tools, which complicates planning and response and creates safety risks for responders and the population.

ODET builds on advances achieved in EWEDopens in new tab, which expanded Europe’s evidence base on fire–atmosphere interactions and laid the foundations for improved decision‑making. The EWED project provided the underlying knowledge and data infrastructure that now enables ODET to develop a new system capable of forecasting the potential for extreme fire behaviour through enhanced modelling and an expanded archive of real and virtual wildfire cases.

EWED demonstrated how crucial it is to develop applied science through collaborations between researchers and practitioners to understand extreme wildfire dynamics. ODET now takes the next step—transforming that knowledge into an operational system that empowers emergency organisations.

Over its implementation period, ODET will deliver a set of tools and resources designed to directly improve emergency preparedness and wildfire management capacities. These include:

An enhanced open decision‑making tool, integrated into the Wildfire Data Portalopens in new tab, developed by EWED, with more data and new modelling capabilities to support emergency responders.
Guidelines and operational protocols for emergency organisations, covering extreme wildfire analysis, preparedness actions, and measures that can be replicated in other risks.
Training for decision‑makers, meteorologists, fire analysts and advisers involved in wildfire operations.
Scientific publications to consolidate and disseminate new knowledge.

ODET’s outputs—data‑driven tools, guidelines, and training—will give emergency organisations practical, reliable resources to anticipate dangerous conditions and act with greater confidence.

ODET is coordinated by the Pau Costa Foundation and brings together a robust consortium with complementary strengths: the Catalan Fire and Rescue Service, Wageningen University, the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety and D.R.E.AM. Italia. This consortium brings together emergency responders, researchers, and applied science organisations, ensuring that ODET’s tools are grounded in both operational needs and scientific rigour.

Our consortium blends scientific depth with real operational experience. This is essential to ensure that the system and guidelines we develop are not only innovative but also usable in emergency management.

ODET is expected to deliver a significant contribution to Europe’s wildfire preparedness by improving forecasting of extreme fire behaviour, supporting decision‑making under uncertainty, strengthening institutional and operational capacities, and making advanced fire‑atmosphere science accessible to emergency organisations.

Now, during the first phase of ODET, we will establish the foundations of the decision-support architecture and prepare the data collection efforts for the 2026 fire season that will feed the system. This early work is crucial for achieving the impact we envision.