Fantina TEDIM, Faculty of Arts, University of Porto, Portugal, Portugal
Vittorio LEONE, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Basilicata (retired), Italy
Fernando CORREIA, Faculty of Arts, University of Porto, Portugal, Portugal
Wildfire disasters recently occurred (e.g. Australia, the US, Portugal, Greece) affecting wildland-urban interface (WUI), with high numbers of fatalities and economic losses, highlight that wildfire problem is far from being solved. In WUI, wildfires can turn into extreme events, where the fire line intensity exceeds control capacity and overwhelms any firefighting apparatus. Considering that the WUI extension and population living on it are increasing, and wildfire disasters are not merely a control problem, the development of strategies of wildfire risk mitigation are of paramount importance. This paper presents a conceptual framework to orientate the action of local governments (municipal level) towards more efficacious wildfire risk management strategies. A survey of scientific literature, in the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, with the search terms of WUI and wildfire (or wildland fire or bushfire or forest fire) was carried out; 202 papers, published from 2010 onward, were retained as valid. They were classified in different thematic categories (e.g. WUI fires characteristics, disasters occurrence conditions, efficacy of mitigation, risk assessment) to support a comprehensive view of wildfire problem at WUI and interventions to mitigate and manage the risk, involving different actors. A workshop with 9 representatives of Portuguese local governments involved in the implementation of the national programs “Safe Village”, and “Safe People”, permitted to integrate scientific and stakeholders’ knowledge and validate the proposed framework. This paper argues that the current policies, based on static regulation systems, pose growing mismatches, economic, environmental and social losses, have high financial costs and do not consider trade-offs that arise from on-the-ground management issues and the integration of different public policies (e.g. spatial planning and wildfire management); it shows the advantages of shift for an adaptive regulation system.
Mots clés : Amenity bias|optimism bias|urban sprawl|wildfire risk|wildland-urban interface
A104242FT