Fire proofing homes, forest fire, spread of wildfires and global warming
September 2007

After the tragic events that Greece experienced last month, unfortunately there are new warnings about  more fires, droughts and floods predicted as climate temperatures increase.

As temperatures rise with global warming, an increased risk of forest fires, droughts and flooding is predicted for the next 200 years by climate scientists from the University of Bristol, UK. Despite the commitment we have already to global warming, even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases now the researchers predict that Eurasia, eastern China, Canada, Central America, and Amazonia are at risk of forest loss, while the far north, Amazonia and many semi-arid regions will become more susceptible to wildfires.

Less freshwater availability, and with it more intense droughts, are likely to occur in West Africa, Central America, southern Europe and the eastern USA. Other regions, will be at significant risk of excessive runoff as trees are lost, increasing the chances of flooding as temperatures rise.

The researchers also found that if the temperature increase is more than 3⁰C, land carbon sinks could release their stored carbon, starting a positive feedback loop that would increase atmospheric carbon dioxide.

At the same time, scientists continue to actively search for better methods for prevention and management of major natural disasters. A new study involving the University of Colorado at Boulder that modeled the spread of forest fires in Colorado and other western states indicates the size and intensity of fires is directly linked with the density and flammability of houses built in the so-called “wildland-urban interface.”

The scientists used computers to model the spread of fires in forest ecosystems in Colorado, Montana Utah, New Mexico, Washington and Wisconsin. This study is the first to systematically look at both houses and trees in forest fire scenarios.

According to the researchers, the message is that fireproofing homes not only preserves structures, but limits the size of forest fires. So fireproofing one’s home not only protects the people that live in it, it also protects their neighbors and ultimately the forests.

Governments spend millions of dollars annually on forest thinning and the removal of excess fuel on the forest floor in an attempt to limit the size and intensity of forest fires. But, the researchers say that if the growing number of homes built in this wildland-urban interface aren’t fireproofed, it is essentially a waste of money

Meanwhile Greeks get space-based help in wake of deadly fires. Cleanup and rebuilding teams responding to the devastation across Greece caused by this summer’s deadly fires are getting help from space.

A series of crisis map products based on satellite acquisitions of affected areas are being provided to aid damage assessment efforts following the activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.

More than 60 people were killed and thousands left homeless in the worst forest fires to hit Greece in decades. According to data from ESA’s ERS-2 and Envisat satellites, which continuously survey fires burning across the Earth’s surface with onboard sensors, Greece experienced more wildfire activity this August than other European countries experienced over the last decade.

In an effort to aid authorities responding to disasters such as this, ESA and other national space agencies established the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters in 2000 to provide rush access to a broad range of satellite data.

The Charter, activated by the Department of Emergency Planning and Response of the Greek Civil Protection Agency, processed this request and recruited the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the Strasbourg-based rapid mapping specialist company (SERTIT) to produce the maps using satellite images provided by the space agencies.

As a result, the Greek Civil Protection Agency received a series of Earth Observation (EO)-based crisis/damage mapping products generated using a variety of EO sensors. The first EO-based maps, delivered while the fires were still active, were overview products based on the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument aboard ESA’s Envisat satellite. French and German Civil Protections active in Greece to support fire fighting teams also received the maps.

These maps were used for fighting active fires across Greece, particularly those in the region of the Parnonas Mountains, which rise to almost 2000 meters on the eastern side of the Peloponnesus peninsula that makes up southern Greece.

According to Greek officials, these map products proved to be very helpful for managing the severe fires that Greece suffered, they intend to use these maps for post-fire management purposes, such as burnt area mapping, reforestation and the construction of flood prevention projects and supply them to the Greek authorities, such as the Greek Forest Service, responsible for consequence management.

Temperatures are rising on Earth, which is heating up the debate over global warming and the future of our planet, but what may be needed most to combat global warming is a greater focus on adapting to our changing planet.

Predicting and foreseeing natural disasters as well as taking all necessary measures for their successful management are necessary preconditions if we want to hope for a better future.