Naslov
Fire risk incidence over the last 200 years: case study in Mediterranean Croatia

Autori
Fuerst-Bjeliš, Borna ; Cvitanović, Marin ; Durbešić, Anamarija

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Skup
X International Seminar: Overarching Issues of the European Area

Mjesto i datum
Porto, Portugal, 29.05.2015. - 30.05.2015

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Croatia; fire risk incidence; GIS; landscape change; Mediterranean

Sažetak
Considering the fire risk, Mediterranean is the one of the most endangered areas on Earth, apart from North American pine forests and African savanna, primarily due to climate features, regular and often long drought periods, and a lot of dry and flammable material. Although natural fires are rare, human impact on the occurrence of fire, due to the environmental features of the Mediterranean is extremely large. Men have controlled the fire within the subsistence economy and manipulated the landscape in the Mediterranean for millennia. Still, there are always uncontrolled fires that are potential environmental risk. The research has pointed out to the strong correlation between the human impact, landscape change and rising fire risk incidence since the 19th century in the Mediterranean Croatia. The research has been conducted on the southern slopes of the Svilaja Mountain, situated in the interior part of central Dalmatia, Croatia. It is a typical Mediterranean karst environment, with considerable human impact in human-environment interrelations. The research was based on a number of various data covering the period of 200 years. Data encompass the original cadastral plans from 1830 to 1846 from the Chart collection for Istria and Dalmatia of the State Archives in Split, forest vegetation maps of the Institute for Adriatic Cultures and Karst Melioration in Split (1975) and the satellite imagery data of CORINE Land Cover Croatia, as well as field work data (since 2004). Fire risk assessment for each of all these periods was estimated according to the methodology provided by the official regulation measures (2003). Methodology is based on a number of parameters such as land cover, climate, orography, vegetation type and forest arrangement, as well as anthropogenic factors. The territory of Republic of Croatia is classified into four levels of forest fire risk: very high, high, medium and low. The research area, the interior Mediterranean Croatia is characterized by medium to very high risk, along with the increasing component of very high risk in recent period. The research has shown the dominance (88 %) of the medium fire risk in the 19th century. In the second half of the 20th century the medium fire risk is considerably replaced by high and very high fire risk over the 50% of the territory. It should be pointed out that very high risk showed dramatic increase of almost 5 times in recent period. As mentioned above, the fire risk incidence is strongly related to human impact and landscape and vegetation change over time. Over the last 200 hundred years two dominant trends of landscape change took place, both of them leading to the outspread of degraded types of forest. Trend of extensification turned the arable to degraded forest, while the trend of degradation turned deciduous forest to pastures and degraded types of forest as well. The analysis of the landscape vulnerability to fire has shown that the most vulnerable and endangered landscape types are degraded and coniferous forest and pastures. Taking into account the overall landscape change over 200 hundred years and the prevalence of degraded forest clearly points to the importance of the human impact through the degradation and extensification on the landscape change and inevitably to the increase of the fire risk incidence.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Geografija

POVEZANOST RADA