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B-FIREPREP

The "Using fire spread simulation to better anticipate and prepare for dangerous and destructive wildfires at national and local level B-FIREPREP" project will implement a state-of-the-art fire spread simulation system capable of predicting potential fire behaviour and identify in advance rural settlements at higher risk and critical areas in terms of spreading of the fire.
Wildfires

Overview

Status

Ongoing

Start

End

Type
Single country grants for disaster risk management (Track 1)
EU contribution amount
EUR 624 989.74 (EU contribution)
Geographic focus
Southern Europe
Contact email

Description

There is a general awareness that large wildfires in Portugal are becoming more frequent and more intense, leading to significant negative impacts. Under this context, it is critical that civil protection agents are better prepared to anticipate the occurrence of dangerous and destructive wildfires, strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of their actions.


Fire spread simulation tools have proven to be highly useful in predicting fire behavior to support robust risk assessments, and identify in advance critical areas and rural settlements at higher risk. This valuable information can allow civil protection agents to anticipate and be better prepared for dangerous wildfires.


B-FIREPREP aims to develop and implement an interactive stochastic fire simulation system to identify in advance: 1) rural settlements at higher risk; 2) critical areas that, in the event of an ignition, may lead to wildfires beyond suppression capacity. It will be developed at national and sub-regional levels, and will be divided in 3 temporal scales:
 

  1. supporting risk assessment several months in advance, contributing for strategic fuel management actions, better risk awareness and reducing the vulnerability of rural communities;
     
  2. implement an early warning system to support strategic decisions to anticipate, several days in advance, potential large and intense wildfires, contributing to improve resource allocation and risk communication to the population. 
     
  3. identifying the risk of rural settlements exposed by an emerging wildfire, several hours in advance, supporting better decision-making regarding the protection of people and assets;
     
  4. strengthen the capabilities of civil protection agents by providing targeted training and implementing awareness raising actions.

B-FIREPREP will develop an interactive web geographic information system (GIS) platform that will contribute to strengthen the preparation and anticipation of civil protection actions regarding dangerous wildfires and to improve risk awareness.

Partner organisations

Organisation
Country
Portugal
Role
Coordinator
EU Contribution
EUR 624 989.74

DRM phases

Prevention