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Fine surface fuels play a key role in driving fire spread, and therefore play an important role in wildfire management in savannas. In protected areas of the Guinean savannas (humid savannas of West Africa), despite prescribed early-dry season (EDS) or mid-dry season fire (MDS), woody encroachment is increasingly occurring. Recently, N'Dri et al. (2022) showed that late-dry season (LDS) fire applied at least three successive years alternating with a maximum of two successives EDS or MDS fires could reduce woody encroachment in protected areas of the regions. However, the relationship between time of burning (TOB) and fine fuel load (standing grass and fallen leaves of grasses and trees) remains uncertain. In a 10-year experimental field study (2013–2023), we monitored fine fuel load under annual fires set in three different TOB within the dry season: EDS, MDS and LDS. We also explored how fuel loads were influenced by fireline intensity and vice-versa, in addition to grass growth dynamic during one year after each fire. Results showed that grass grows faster in height after fires, reaching the highest peak (∼2 m) in November regardless of the TOB. Overall, the TOB within the dry season did not affect significantly the total fine fuel load even after 10 years (1.22 ± 0.12, 1 ± 0.09 and 0.96 ± 0.09 kg m−2 respectively for EDS, MDS and LDS fires). Nevertheless, in EDS plots, the greatest biomass of grass and litter was generally observed in alternate years. This is most likely due to a high decomposition rate and termite activity which played a rôle in maintaining basic levels. Overall, fireline intensity did not influence the subsequent fine fuel load recorded in November and fine fuel load recorded just before fires did not influence fireline intensity. Given the results of the current study, the best procedure in setting successive fires to reduce woody encroachment in Guinean savannas, remains that of N'Dri et al. (2022). • Grasses reach maximal height (∼2m) in November in Guinean savannas. • Overall, fuel load does (FL) not vary across the time of burning (TOB) within the dry season. • Fine FL and fireline intensity (FI) did not influence each other, whatever TOB. • Overall, changing the TOB to prevent bush encroachment does not modify FI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuel management is undertaken to mitigate the adverse consequences of wildfire. Finite mitigation budgets demand selective prioritization of forest stands for targeted fuel reduction treatments. A range of modeling methods have been used to identifiy optimal fuel treatment plans at various spatial and temporal scales of investigation; however, strategic analysis of fuel management alternatives can involve a range of limitations and challenges, including the prevalence of one-time solutions, static models lacking dynamic adaptability, and challenges in accounting for the stochastic nature of fire behaviour. To navigate these complexities, our study combines remote sensing-based analysis with a random search optimization algorithm to inform strategic fuel management and wildfire mitigation planning. For two communities in Alberta, Whitecourt and Hinton, we assessed landscape fire exposure within and around the built environment and rated hazardous fuels by the number of buildings they exposed (i.e., Building Exposure load, BEL). Through the assessment of BEL and the outcomes of the optimization algorithm, our model identified key areas for intervention, enabling a more informed allocation of mitigation resources. We found good alignment between expert-derived fuel treatment areas and our model-derived fuel reduction areas, PFRs, confirming the utility and relevance of our findings. The methodology is adaptable to diverse regional fuel characteristics and it also offers a phased implementation to assisting communities with financial constraints. The suggested systematic approach aids communities that lack local expertise in developing proactive fuel treatment strategies. Additionally, this study emphasizes the need to combine fuel treatment prioritization with community involvement, acknowledgment of potential local limitations, and financial planning to enhance its effectiveness and adaptability. • Uses remote sensing satellite imagery and random search optimization algorithm for identification of treatment areas. • Prioritizes fuel treatment areas based on the presence and location of fuels and infrastructures. • Addresses financial constraints in communities as it is applicable for an extended period (e.g., 5 years). • Adaptable with other studies for both short-term and long-term planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming significantly affects the frequency and intensity of wildfires in many fire-prone areas of the world and fire disturbance regimes are changing rapidly. Alongside this, controlled burning is often considered or implemented as an alternative method for nature protection. Here, we studied the post-fire secondary succession in dry heath habitat located in military training grounds to recognise the impact of fire on the effectiveness and rate of ecosystem recovery. We focus particularly on identifying indicator species for a given successional phase of Central European dry heath habitats and assessing their value for dating the last fire disturbance. The research involved 60 vegetation patches (plots of 25 m2), which were assigned to four post-fire age classes, namely: 1–5 years (Class A), 6–10 years (Class B), 11–15 years (Class C), and >15 years (Class D). In each study plot, species diversity and coverage of lichens, bryophytes and vascular plants were examined in addition to the physicochemical properties of the soil substrate. Cryptogams and vascular plants clearly differ in terms of the secondary succession pattern; specific sets of cryptogams correspond well to particular post-fire classes and are therefore good determinants of the post-fire succession stage. Spontaneous succession of plant vegetation eventually leads to complete recovery of the heath in a relatively short time. Nevertheless, great vegetation dynamics in the first years after a fire disturbance may result in seemingly different directions of succession. Post-fire classes did not differ noticeably in terms of soil properties, it follows that the effects of fire on soil conditions are negligible; though, a significant upward trend was observed for exchangeable form of K throughout the succession process. Our results indicate that sporadic fires reduce the undesirable overgrowth of heathlands or psamophilous grasslands and generally have a little negative side-effect on the ecosystem. The revealed succession patterns and defined sets of species characteristic for subsequent post-fire age classes are applicable to dating fire disturbances, regardless of whether the fire was planned or spontaneous. [Display omitted] • Structure of heath vegetation and period since fire disturbance are interrelated. • Post-fire succession of cryptogams and vascular plants follows a different pattern. • Contribution of specific sets of cryptogams determines post-fire succession stage. • Exchangeable K content shows upward trend in subsequent post-fire succession stages. • Extensively used military training areas outlines heath response on fire disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Woody invasive alien species can have profound impacts on ecosystem processes and functions, including fire regulation, which can significantly affect landscape resilience. Acacia dealbata , a widespread invasive alien plant in the Iberian Peninsula, holds well-known fire-adaptation traits (e.g., massive soil seed banks and heat-stimulated seed germination). In this study, we assess to what extent fire suppression and land-use strategies could affect the potential distribution of A. dealbata in a fire-prone transboundary protected mountain area of Portugal and Spain, using Habitat Suitability Models. Specifically, we predicted changes in habitat suitability for A. dealbata between years 2010 and 2050. We explored the potential impacts of two land-use strategies ('Business-as-usual' or 'High Nature Value farmlands') combined with three levels of fire suppression effectiveness using the biomod2 package in R. We also considered the potential effects of two climate change scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). Our modeling approach demonstrated a strong capacity to predict habitat suitability using either climate or land-cover information alone (AUC climate = 0.947; AUC LC = 0.957). According to climate-based models, A. dealbata thrives under conditions characterized by higher precipitation seasonality, higher precipitation in the warmest month, and higher minimum temperature in the coldest month. Regarding land cover, A. dealbata thrives mainly in landscapes dominated by urban areas and evergreen forest plantations. Our models forecasted that habitat suitability by 2050 could either increase or decrease depending on the specific combinations of fire suppression, land-use, and climate scenarios. Thus, a combination of business-as-usual and fire-exclusion strategies would enhance habitat suitability for the species. Conversely, management promoting High Nature Value farmlands would decrease the available suitable habitat, particularly under low fire suppression efforts. These findings suggest that promoting sustainable farming activities could impede the spread of A. dealbata by reducing habitat availability, while strategies aiming at fire-exclusion could facilitate its expansion, likely by enabling establishment and large seed production. This study highlights the complex interplay between fire-prone invasive species, fire and land-use strategies, and climate change; and thus the need to consider the interactions between land-use and fire management to promote invasive species control and landscape resilience. [Display omitted] • Many invasive species will expand towards conservation areas under future climates. • The study evaluates fire suppression and land-use effects on A. dealbata's habitat. • High Nature Value farmlands limit A. dealbata 's habitat suitability the most. • High fire suppression creates a prevalence of land-uses that favor A. dealbata. • Invasive species control needs to consider the interactions of land-use and fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permafrost regions play an important role in global carbon and nitrogen cycling, storing enormous amounts of organic carbon and preserving a delicate balance of nutrient dynamics. However, the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in these regions pose significant challenges to the stability of these ecosystems. This review examines the effects of fire on chemical, biological, and physical properties of permafrost regions. The physical, chemical, and pedological properties of frozen soil are impacted by fires, leading to changes in soil structure, porosity, and hydrological functioning. The combustion of organic matter during fires releases carbon and nitrogen, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient loss. Understanding the interactions between fire severity, ecosystem processes, and the implications for permafrost regions is crucial for predicting the impacts of wildfires and developing effective strategies for ecosystem protection and agricultural productivity in frozen soils. By synthesizing available knowledge and research findings, this review enhances our understanding of fire severity's implications for permafrost ecosystems and offers insights into effective fire management strategies. [Display omitted] • Fire effects on soil nutrients and microbial communities have been discussed. • Fire-related modifications in physical properties of soil have been highlighted. • Effects of fire on active layer depth, soil moisture content and hydrological processes. • Mitigation techniques to deal with soil problems due to fire have been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfires and post-fire management exert profound effects on soil properties and microbial communities in forest ecosystems. Understanding microbial community recovery from fire and what the best post-fire management should be is very important but needs to be sufficiently studied. In light of these gaps in our understanding, this study aimed to assess the short-term effects of wildfire and post-fire management on both bacteria and fungi community composition, diversity, structure, and co-occurrence networks, and to identify the principal determinants of soil processes influencing the restoration of these communities. Specifically, we investigated soil bacterial and fungal community composition, diversity, structure, and co-occurrence networks in lower subtropical forests during a short-term (<3 years) post-fire recovery period at four main sites in Guangdong Province, southern China. Our results revealed significant effects of wildfires on fungal community composition, diversity, and co-occurrence patterns. Network analysis indicated reduced bacterial network complexity and connectivity post-fire, while the same features were enhanced in fungal networks. However, post-fire management effects on microbial communities were negligible. Bacterial diversity correlated positively with soil microbial biomass nitrogen, soil organic carbon, and soil total nitrogen. Conversely, based on the best random forest model, fungal community dynamics were negatively linked to nitrate-nitrogen and soil water content. Spearman's correlation analysis suggested positive associations between bacterial networks and soil factors, whereas fungal networks exhibited predominantly negative associations. This study elucidates the pivotal role of post-fire management in shaping ecological outcomes. Additionally, it accentuates the discernible distinctions between bacterial and fungal responses to fire throughout a short-term recovery period. These findings contribute novel insights that bear significance in evaluating the efficacy of environmental management strategies. • Fire and post-fire management impacted soil microbial community composition. • Fire increased the diversity of both bacterial and fungal communities. • Post-fire management strategies had differential impacts on soil bacterial and fungal communities. • Post-fire fungal communities were more constrained by soil physico-chemical properties than bacterial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geospatial fire behaviour and fire hazard simulators, fire effects models and smoke emission software commonly use standard fuel models in order to simplify data collection and the inclusion of complex fuel scenarios. These fuel models are often mapped using remotely sensed data. However, given the great complexity of fuelbeds, with properties that vary widely in both time and space, the use of these standard fuel models can greatly limit accurate fuel mapping. This affects fuel hazard assessment, fuel reduction treatment plans, fire management decision-making and evaluation of the environmental impact of wildfire. In this study, we developed unique customized fire behaviour fuel models for shrub and bracken communities, by using k-medoids clustering analysis based on both fuel structural characteristics and potential fire behaviour. We used an original database of 722 destructive sample plots in nine different shrub and bracken communities covering the entire distribution area in Galicia (NW Spain), one of the regions in Europe most affected by forest fires. Measurements of cover, height and fuel fractions loads differentiated by size and vegetative state (live or dead) were used to estimate the potential rate of fire spread with five different models including fireline intensity, heat per unit area and the flame length for each sampling site and considering extreme environmental conditions. The optimal number of clusters was established by combining practical knowledge about the shrubland communities under study and their associated fire behaviour, with maximization of the mean value of the silhouette variable and minimization of the within-cluster sum of squares. The structural characteristics of the medoids derived from the analysis were associated with each of the proposed customized fuel models. Finally, a simple dichotomous classification based only on shrub height was developed to enable construction of spatially explicit fuel model maps based on remotely sensed data. Thus, the methodology applied allows generation of a more realistic representation of fuel distribution in the landscape, based on fuel structure measurements of natural regional ecosystems rather than on the use of standard models. We believe that the proposed methodology is generally applicable to communities composed of other shrub and fern species in different biogeographical regions. • Classification methods were applied to a sample of 722 shrublands plots. • Fuel structure and potential fire behaviour parameters were combined in cluster analysis. • Cluster results for five different models used to estimate fire rate of spread were compared. • Four shrub models and two bracken models based on medoids are proposed for NW Spain. • A height-based classifier correctly assigned 67% and 84% of shrub and bracken models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildland fire incident commanders make wildfire response decisions within an increasingly complex socio-environmental context. Threats to human safety and property, along with public pressures and agency cultures, often lead commanders to emphasize full suppression. However, commanders may use less-than-full suppression to enhance responder safety, reduce firefighting costs, and encourage beneficial effects of fire. This study asks: what management, socioeconomic, environmental, and fire behavior characteristics are associated with full suppression and the less-than-full suppression methods of point-zone protection, confinement/containment, and maintain/monitor? We analyzed incident report data from 374 wildfires in the United States northern Rocky Mountains between 2008 and 2013. Regression models showed that full suppression was most strongly associated with higher housing density and earlier dates in the calendar year, along with non-federal land jurisdiction, regional and national incident management teams, human-caused ignitions, low fire-growth potential, and greater fire size. Interviews with commanders provided decision-making context for these regression results. Future efforts to encourage less-than-full suppression should address the complex management context, in addition to the biophysical context, of fire response. • Social-ecological context is critical for fire management decisions. • Commanders chose full suppression for nearly half the fires in the region. • Full suppression less likely on federal land, later in year, and for local teams. • Full suppression more likely with higher housing density and larger fires. • Changes would incentivize less-than-full-suppression to reduce future fire risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a comparative analysis of four Machine Learning (ML) models used to map wildfire susceptibility on Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaiʻi. Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) combined with three meta-heuristic algorithms – Whale Optimization (WOA), Black Widow Optimization (BWO), and Butterfly Optimization (BOA) – were employed to map areas susceptible to wildfire. To generate a wildfire inventory, 1408 wildfire points were identified within the study area from 2004 to 2022. The four ML models (XGBoost, WOA-XGBoost, BWO-XGBoost, and BOA-XGBoost) were run using 14 wildfire-conditioning factors categorized into four main groups: topographical, meteorological, vegetation, and anthropogenic. Six performance metrics – sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values, negative predictive values, the Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve (AUC), and the average precision (AP) of Precision–Recall Curves (PRCs) – were used to compare the predictive performance of the ML models. The SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) framework was also used to interpret the importance values of the 14 influential variables for the modeling of wildfire on Hawaiʻi Island using the four models. The results of the wildfire modeling indicated that all four models performed well, with the BWO-XGBoost model exhibiting a slightly higher prediction performance (AUC = 0.9269), followed by WOA-XGBoost (AUC = 0.9253), BOA-XGBoost (AUC = 0.9232), and XGBoost (AUC = 0.9164). SHAP analysis revealed that the distance from a road, annual temperature, and elevation were the most influential factors. The wildfire susceptibility maps generated in this study can be used by local authorities for wildfire management and fire suppression activity. [Display omitted] • Optimized XGBoost method applied to detect wildfire-prone areas. • The BWO-XGBoost exhibited the most superior predictive performance. • Distance from roads significantly influenced wildfire susceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent trends in wildfire area burned have been characterized by large patches with high densities of standing dead trees, well outside of historical range of variability in many areas and presenting forest managers with difficult decisions regarding post-fire management. Post-fire tree harvesting, commonly called salvage logging, is a controversial management tactic that is often undertaken to recoup economic loss and, more recently, also to reduce future fuel hazard, especially when coupled with surface fuel reduction. It is unclear, however, whether the reductions in future fuels translate to meaningful changes to reburn fire behavior, particularly in the context of potentially detrimental effects of harvest on other ecosystem services. We used observed post-fire snag structure in four high severity burn scars located in the Western United States that had variable post-fire snag basal area (13.3–63.9 mg ha−2) to initialize a simulation study of future coarse and fine woody fuel hazard and associated reburn fire behavior and effects. We compared untreated controls to intensive and intermediate intensity harvest treatments, both simulated and actual. All treatments showed some number of years of extreme fire behavior during which flame lengths exceeded thresholds associated with wildfire resistance to control, implying that future fuel reductions achieved by the treatments did not translate to conditions conducive for effective reburn fire management. Harvested stands had less severe soil fire effects (soil heating and smoldering duration) than untreated controls, explained by lower predicted peak coarse woody fuels (CWD) in the harvested stands. At higher pre-treatment snag basal area, harvested stands better maintained CWD within the range desired to maintain ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling and wildlife habitat. These simulation results indicate that, even with reduced fuel hazard, salvage treatments may still be associated with severe fire behavior for some time after wildfire, but achieved reductions in coarse woody fuels may also reduce some soil fire effects. Tradeoffs in the effects of post-fire harvest must be considered carefully in the context of forest regeneration, local conditions that govern salvage methods, snag fall and decomposition, and associated potential reburn fire effects. • Post-fire harvest is a controversial practice following high severity wildfire. • Simulated harvest has higher initial fuel hazard with lower fuel hazard over time. • Lower fuel hazard in simulated harvest still exceed resistance to control thresholds. • Simulated harvest lowers soil fire effects over time. • Post-fire management is complicated by conflicting management objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of many rural forestry areas depends strongly on tourism activities; therefore, it is critical to incorporate these activities in the decision-making process for the management and conservation efforts. Different from other market resources provided by forests, recreation activities provide benefits not only to forest owners but to all surrounding communities. Economic valuation of recreation activities requires using indirect valuation approaches like the travel cost method. Annual welfare estimates for the "Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park" in southern Spain ranged from 25.30 € per recreationist for driving and travel time costs to 72.69 € per recreationist for these former costs plus associated incidental (food, lodging, etc.) costs. The annual value of this natural protected area was estimated at 3,656,609 € for the driving and travel time costs approach; and it was increased to 10,505,885.7 € for the total costs approach. Distributing the recreation welfare estimate proportionally is not reasonable as the visitation rate to different areas is different. Therefore, we use the individual recreational activities demand to distribute the estimated recreation value. Finally, we integrate the consumer surplus, the vegetation resilience and the potential fire behavior to estimate the fire recreation susceptibility. The fire susceptibility was increased by 58.25 million € from driving and travel time costs to total costs including incidental costs. Development of a socio-economic susceptibility framework using Geographic Information Systems provides an objective tool for budget allocation and prioritization of prevention activities and suppression actions during wildfires. • Development of many rural forestry areas depends strongly on tourism activities. • The individual activities demand has been widely used to distribute the recreation value. • Distributing the recreation welfare estimate proportionally is not reasonable. • Fire vulnerability provides a tool for budget allocation and prioritization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the western United States is experiencing longer fire seasons with an increased frequency of high-severity fires and fire risk. Fire managers in the southwestern United States have increased efforts to reduce fire risk by managing more fires to meet resource objectives (e.g. thin forests, reduce hazardous fuel loads, and restore the landscape). However, little is known about the situational circumstances and decision space that inform the strategic response to wildland fire. Using generalized and time-to-event modeling techniques, we examined how fire management decisions are reached in a context informed by weather, burning conditions, and subsequent fire behavior. Modeling results captured daily containment probabilities along a gradient from limiting natural conditions to suppression invoked containment. Results inform fire management decisions, future research efforts, and the simulation of wildland fires with resource objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the terrestrial ecosystems, perennial challenges of increased frequency and intensity of wildfires are exacerbated by climate change and unplanned human activities. Development of robust management and suppression plans requires accurate estimates of future burn probabilities. This study describes the development and validation of two hybrid intelligence predictive models that rely on an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and two metaheuristic optimization algorithms, i.e., genetic algorithm (GA) and firefly algorithm (FA), for the spatially explicit prediction of wildfire probabilities. A suite of ten explanatory variables (altitude, slope, aspect, land use, rainfall, soil order, temperature, wind effect, and distance to roads and human settlements) was investigated and a spatial database constructed using 32 fire events from the Zagros ecoregion (Iran). The frequency ratio model was used to assign weights to each class of variables that depended on the strength of the spatial association between each class and the probability of wildfire occurrence. The weights were then used for training the ANFIS-GA and ANFIS-FA hybrid models. The models were validated using the ROC-AUC method that indicated that the ANFIS-GA model performed better (AUC success rate = 0.92; AUC prediction rate = 0.91) than the ANFIS-FA model (AUC success rate = 0.89; AUC prediction rate = 0.88). The efficiency of these models was compared to a single ANFIS model and statistical analyses of paired comparisons revealed that the two meta-optimized predictive models significantly improved wildfire prediction accuracy compared to the single ANFIS model (AUC success rate = 0.82; AUC prediction rate = 0.78). We concluded that such predictive models may become valuable toolkits to effectively guide fire management plans and on-the-ground decisions on firefighting strategies. • Fine-tuning of ANFIS parameters using genetic and firefly optimization algorithms. • Overcoming the potential bias inherent in the over-fitted single ANFIS model. • Proving AUC>0.88 for wildfire prediction using the hybrid intelligence models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Mechanisms underlying the loss of ecological resilience and a shift to an alternate regime with lower ecosystem service provisioning continues to be a leading debate in ecology, particularly in cases where evidence points to human actions and decision-making as the primary drivers of resilience loss and regime change. In this paper, we introduce the concept of coerced resilience as a way to explore the interplay among social power, ecological resilience, and fire management, and to better understand the unintended and undesired regime changes that often surprise ecosystem managers and governing officials. Philosophically, coercion is the opposite of freedom, and uses influence or force to gain compliance among local actors. The coercive force imposed by societal laws and policies can either enhance or reduce the potential to manage for essential structures and functions of ecological systems and, therefore, can greatly alter resilience. Using a classical fire-dependent regime shift from North America (tallgrass prairie to juniper woodland), and given that coercion is widespread in fire management today, we quantify relative differences in resilience that emerge in a policy-coerced fire system compared to a theoretical, policy-free fire system. Social coercion caused large departures in the fire conditions associated with alternative grassland and juniper woodland states, and the potential for a grassland state to emerge to dominance became increasingly untenable with fire as juniper cover increased. In contrast, both a treeless, grassland regime and a co-dominated grass-tree regime emerged across a wide range of fire conditions in the absence of policy controls. The severe coercive forcing present in fire management in the Great Plains, and corresponding erosion of grassland resilience, points to the need for transformative environmental governance and the rethinking of social power structures in modern fire policies. Highlights • We introduce coerced resilience, which unifies social power theory with resilience. • Philosophically, coercion is the opposite of freedom. • Numerous examples of coercion are evident in today's fire governance system. • Severe coercive forcing has eroded resilience in Great Plains grasslands. • Resilience-based fire management requires rethinking current social power structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Wildfires occurring near and within cities are a potential threat to the population's life and health and can cause significant economic damage by destroying infrastructure and private property. Due to the relatively small area of these wildlands, the accuracy of fire risk-assessment plays a significant role in fire management. Introducing the experience of real events can improve accuracy. But this approach is limited by a lack of knowledge of pre-fire conditions, mainly vegetation characteristics as related to their definition as a fuel parameter because of their high temporal variation. To solve this problem, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was designed to reconstruct the spectral characteristics of the vegetation just before the fire with spatial resolution 0.5–2 m from the Landsat image. To test the effectiveness of the proposed methods, the approach has been examined on urban vegetation sites and applied to restore spectral information of the actual vegetation patch before it was burned in 2016 in Haifa, Israel. The results show that the reconstructed RGB image allows for mapping the location of green vegetation with high spatial accuracy. However, spectral data in the visible range have some limitations when it comes to identifying differences between soil and dry plants. The reconstructed image was used to sharp the original data from Landsat. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index maps were produced from the resulting high-resolution multispectral image. The output maps allow to determine the location of vegetation and estimate the level of its dryness on the urban wildland landscape. The proposed method aims to estimate vegetation dryness and, as a result, identify the fuel characteristics at the time of the fire. It has the potential of using for evaluation and improve the weights of the input parameters for the fire-risk assessment and fire-behavior modeling on a specific area. Highlights • Satellite imagery is useful for assessment vegetation dryness before the fire. • Artificial neural network estimates function for non-linear mixture in pixel. • Reconstructed spectral vegetation characteristics relates to the ignition probability. • Image reconstruction allow to improve spatial resolution of satellite imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Fire severity is an increasingly critical issue for forest managers for estimating fire impacts. Estimating high fire severity potential and accurate classification between fire severity levels are essential for integrated fire management planning in fire prone Mediterranean pine ecosystems. This study attempts to determine the role of topography, pre-fire forest stand structure, fuel complex characteristics and fire behavior parameters on high fire severity potential and classification based on a large fire event occurred in Thasos, Greece. Within this framework, the Random Forest (RF) classification algorithm was used to model the relationship between a large set of predictors and fire severity as expressed by the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) spectral index, inferred from differenced pre- and post-fire Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) at 30-m resolution. Results from the RF classifier algorithm showed that high fire severity potential and classification between fire severity levels mainly depended on topography variables and fuel complex characteristics. Assessing of factors which drive a fire to turn into high severe fire and classification into fire severity levels will substantially help land and forest managers to increase fire prevention and develop of concrete actions for successful post fire management at landscape level. Highlights • Fire severity is mainly depended on topography variables and fuel characteristics. • The models from the study will be valuable for understanding fire severity. • The spatial assessment of fire severity potential can help in fire management. • The models developed should be interpreted with care in other forest ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Fire scenarios are multiscale land-type planning units for a fire regime with different applications at national, regional, and local scales. The main aim of this research is to implement a methodology integrating landscape dynamics and wildfire risk from a context-specific approach, to identify current fire scenarios at a regional scale in the Spanish Central Mountain Range. These homogeneous areas are linked to different stages of a territorial dynamics model called wildfire generations and related to land use diversity and land management trends. A place-based methodology has been developed to characterize fire scenarios using Geographic Information Systems and statistical analysis, resulting in analytical and diagnostic mapping that can be used as a decision support tool for spatial planning and wildfire risk management. Its implementation has led to the delimitation of 91 discrete geographic units in the Central Mountain Range, classified according to wildfire generations and land use-land cover criteria. In conclusion, the fire scenarios concept is a potential approach to manage uncertainty by moving from the operational level of fire suppression to the strategic level of integrated fire management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Impacts of wildfire on humans are increasing as urban populations continue to expand into fire prone landscapes. Effective fire risk management can only be achieved if we understand and quantify how ecosystems change in response to fire and how these changes affect flammability. However, there have been limited studies to this effect with the dominant paradigm being the assumption that recently burnt vegetation is less flammable than older vegetation. To better quantify changes in flammability, we first need to quantify trajectories of changes in response to fire within individual vegetation communities. Second, we need to examine the extent to which these changes alter flammability. Here, we quantify the flammability pathways with increasing time since fire for five vegetation communities in south-eastern Australia. A total of 116 sites were measured across a range of heathland, woodland and forest ecosystems. Flammability was measured using an ecological point based mechanistic fire behaviour model that estimates three measures of flammability relevant to both fire management and research. Predicted changes in flammability varied between vegetation types with heathland and wet forests generally increasing in flammability with time since fire and tall mixed, foothills and forby forests decreasing or showing limited changes with time since fire. Variations in flammability pathways suggest fire management activities that alter fuel structure, such as prescribed burning, may only reduce flammability in a limited set of ecosystems. Incorporating these results into a landscape analysis will improve the quantification of fire risk. Highlights • Flammability of vegetation is often assumed to increase with time since fire. • We tested this assumption across a productivity gradient in five forest communities. • Increased flammability with time since fire was found in heathland and wet forests. • Contrary results were found in tall mixed, foothills and forby forests. • Benefits of fuel treatments will not be equal across all vegetation communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Land occupation and management systems have defined fire regimes and landscapes for millennia. The savanna biome is responsible for 86% of all fire events, contributes to 10% of the total carbon emissions annually and is home to 10% of the human population. European colonization has been associated with the implementation of fire suppression policies in many tropical savanna regions, markedly disrupting traditional fire management practices and transforming ecosystems. In this paper we assess savanna burning approaches from pre-colonial to contemporary eras in three regions: northern Australia, southern Africa and Brazil. In these regions, fire suppression policies have led to (i) conflicts between government authorities and local communities; (ii) frequent late dry season wildfires and/or (iii) woody encroachment. Such consequences are facilitating changes to fire management policies, including recognition and incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge in contemporary community-based adaptive savanna fire management. Such programs include implementation of prescribed early dry season fires and, in some regions, generating income opportunities for rural and traditional communities through the reduction of late dry season wildfires and associated greenhouse gas emissions. We present a brief history of fire management policies in these three important savanna regions, and identify ongoing challenges for implementation of culturally and ecologically sustainable fire management policies. Highlights • Many tropical savanna regions have been subjected to fire suppression policies. • Fire prohibitions caused conflicts, wildfires and cultural and livelihood impacts. • Contemporary fire policies concern traditional systems, environment and livelihood. • Effective fire policies address adaptive, inclusive and integrative management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Southern European countries rely largely on fire suppression and ignition prevention to manage a growing wildfire problem. We explored a more wholistic, long-term approach based on priority maps for the implementation of diverse management options aimed at creating fire resilient landscapes, restoring cultural fire regimes, facilitating safe and efficient fire response, and creating fire-adapted communities. To illustrate this new comprehensive strategy for fire-prone Mediterranean areas, we developed and implemented the framework in Catalonia (northeastern Spain). We first used advanced simulation modeling methods to assess various wildfire exposure metrics across spatially changing fire-regime conditions, and these outputs were then combined with land use maps and historical fire occurrence data to prioritize different fuel and fire management options at the municipality level. Priority sites for fuel management programs concentrated in the central and northeastern high-hazard forestlands. The suitable areas for reintroducing fires in natural ecosystems located in scattered municipalities with ample lightning ignitions and minimal human presence. Priority areas for ignition prevention programs were mapped to populated coastal municipalities and main transportation corridors. Landscapes where fire suppression is the principal long-term strategy concentrated in agricultural plains with a high density of ignitions. Localized programs to build defensible space and improve self-protection on communities could be emphasized in the coastal wildland-urban interface and inner intermix areas from Barcelona and Gerona. We discuss how the results of this study can facilitate collaborative landscape planning and identify the constraints that prevent a longer term and more effective solution to better coexist with fire in southern European regions. Highlights • We used modeled wildfire exposure to prioritize management alternatives in Catalonia. • Fuels treatments in forestlands were prioritized to create fire-resilient landscapes. • Lightning and pastoral fires were projected to restore cultural fire regimes. • We identified best municipalities for a safe and efficient wildfire response. • Promoting fire-adapted communities in highly exposed populated areas is a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of fire severity reduction strategies requires the quantification of intervention outcomes and, more broadly, the extent to which fuel characteristics affect fire severity. However, investigations are currently limited by the availability of accurate data on fire severity predictors, particularly relating to fuel. Here, we used airborne LiDAR data collected before the 2019-20 Australian Black Summer fires to investigate the contribution of fuel structure to fire severity under a range of weather conditions. Fire severity was estimated using the Relative Burn Ratio calculated from Sentinel-2 optical remote sensing imagery. We modelled the effects of various fuel structure estimates and other environmental predictors using Random Forest models. In addition to variables estimated at each observation point, we investigated the influence of surrounding landscape characteristics using an innovative method to estimate fireline progression direction. Our models explained 63–76% of fire severity variance using parsimonious predictor sets. Fuel cover in the understorey and canopy, and vertical vegetation heterogeneity, were positively associated with fire severity. Up-fire burnt area and recent planned and unplanned fire reduced fire severity, whereby unplanned fire provided a longer-lasting reduction of fire severity (up to 15 years) than planned fire (up to 10 years). Although fuel structure and land management effects were important predictors, weather and canopy height effects were dominant. By mapping continuous interactions between weather and fuel-related variables, we found strong evidence of diminishing fuel effects below 20–40% relative air humidity. While our findings suggest that land management interventions can provide meaningful fire severity reduction, they also highlight the risk of warmer and drier future climates constraining these advantages. • Fuel structure prior to 2019-20 Black Summer wildfires estimated with airborne LiDAR. • Random Forest models used for large-sample study of fuel effects on fire severity. • Higher understorey and mid-canopy fuel density promoted higher fire severity. • Planned and unplanned fire reduced severity for up to 10 and 15 years, respectively. • Fuel and fire history effects diminished under more extreme fire weather. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many parts of Europe face increasing challenges managing wildfires. Although wildfire is an integral part of certain ecosystems, fires in many places are becoming larger and more intense, driven largely by climate change, land abandonment, and changes in fuel management with important socioeconomic, environmental, and ecosystem services consequences for Europe. In order to envision a comprehensive fire risk mitigation strategy for Europe, a spatial assessment of opportunities to manage fuels at the landscape-scale is needed. Our study explored the suitability of three land management strategies (LMS)—herbivory, mechanical fuel removal, and prescribed burn—which can create more heterogenous fuelscapes, thereby reducing an element of fire risk. We created suitability maps for each of the LMS using adoption factors identified in a systematic literature review (n = 123). We compared these maps with areas of historical fire occurrence as a proxy for fire risk to prioritize key areas for intervention. We found that over a quarter of Europe was suitable for multiple LMS within areas of greater fire risk, creating opportunities for concurrent and synergistic use of the strategies. Options were more limited in areas of southern Europe, where prescribed burn was found to be uniquely viable amongst the LMS evaluated. Opportunities were also restricted in some areas of high fire risk in northern Europe, where herbivory was found to be the only suitable LMS. Our findings take a wide-view of fuel management to target landscape-scale decision making focused on reducing fire risk. However, many other factors must be taken into account to successfully manage fuels at local scales, including the socio-cultural appropriateness of the LMS, the viability of incentive schemes, and possible trade-offs with other management goals, such as carbon storage and biodiversity. [Display omitted] • We mapped the suitability of three Land Management Strategies (LMS) which can affect fire risk in Europe • Over a quarter of Europe was found to be suitable for multiple LMS in areas of historical fire occurrence • Parts of southern Europe were found to be uniquely suitable for prescribed burn • Local context, incentive structures, and ecosystem service trade-offs must also be considered • The results serve as a basis for policy envisioning and resource prioritization for fire risk in Europe [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire management across Australia's fire-prone 1.2 M km2 northern savannas region has been transformed over the past decade supported by the inception of Australia's national regulated emissions reduction market in 2012. Today, incentivised fire management is undertaken over a quarter of that entire region, providing a range of socio-cultural, environmental, and economic benefits, including for remote Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) communities and enterprises. Building on those advances, here we explore the emissions abatement potential for expanding incentivised fire management opportunities to include a contiguous fire-prone region, extending to monsoonal but annually lower (<600 mm) and more variable rainfall conditions, supporting predominantly shrubby spinifex (Triodia) hummock grasslands characteristic of much of Australia's deserts and semi-arid rangelands. Adapting a standard methodological approach applied previously for assessing savanna emissions parameters, we first describe fire regime and associated climatic attributes for a proposed ∼850,000 km2 lower rainfall (600–350 mm MAR) focal region. Second, based on regional field assessments of seasonal fuel accumulation, combustion, burnt area patchiness, and accountable methane and nitrous oxide Emission Factor parameters, we find that significant emissions abatement is feasible for regional hummock grasslands. This applies specifically for more frequently burnt sites under higher rainfall conditions if substantial early dry season prescribed fire management is undertaken resulting in marked reduction in late dry season wildfires. The proposed Northern Arid Zone (NAZ) focal envelope is substantially under Indigenous land ownership and management, and in addition to reducing emissions impacts associated with recurrent extensive wildfires, development of commercial landscape-scale fire management opportunities would significantly support social, cultural and biodiversity management aspirations as promoted by Indigenous landowners. Combined with existing regulated savanna fire management regions, inclusion of the NAZ under existing legislated abatement methodologies would effectively provide incentivised fire management covering a quarter of Australia's landmass. This could complement an allied (non-carbon) accredited method valuing combined social, cultural and biodiversity outcomes from enhanced fire management of hummock grasslands. Although the management approach has potential application to other international fire-prone savanna grasslands, caution is required to ensure that such practice does not result in irreversible woody encroachment and undesirable habitat change. • Fire management of Australia's northern savannas has been transformed by inception of Australia's national carbon market. • We assess potential of incentivised fire management in <600 mm rainfall conditions supporting arid spinifex grasslands. • Significant emissions abatement is feasible for frequently burnt spinifex grasslands based on standard assessment methods. • Adding an 850,000 km2 northern arid zone would afford incentivised fire management over a quarter of Australia's landmass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of sustainable, low-intensity fire regimes is a pressing global challenge given escalating risk of wildfire driven by climate change. Globally, colonialism and industrialisation have disrupted traditional fire management, such as Indigenous patch burning and silvo-pastoral practices, leading to substantial build-up of fuel and increased fire risk. The disruption of fire regimes in southeastern Tasmania has led to dense even-aged regrowth in wet forests that are prone to crown fires, and dense Allocasuarina -dominated understoreys in dry forests that burn at high intensities. Here, we investigated the effectiveness of several fire management interventions at reducing fire risk. These interventions involved prescribed burning or mechanical understorey removal techniques. We focused on wet and dry Eucalyptus -dominated sclerophyll forests on the slopes of kunanyi/Mt. Wellington in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. We modelled potential fire behaviour in these treated wet and dry forests using fire behaviour equations based on measurements of fuel load, vegetation structure, understorey microclimate and regional meteorological data. We found that (a) fuel treatments were effective in wet and dry forests in reducing fuel load, though each targeted different layers, (b) both mechanical treatments and prescribed burning resulted in slightly drier, and hence more fire prone understorey microclimate, and (c) all treatments reduced predicted subsequent fire severity by roughly 2–4 fold. Our results highlight the importance of reducing fuel loads, even though fuel treatments make forest microclimates drier, and hence fuel more flammable. Our finding of the effectiveness of mechanical treatments in lowering fire risk enables managers to reduce fuels without the risk of uncontrolled fires and smoke pollution that is associated with prescribed burning. Understanding the economic and ecological costs and benefits of mechanic treatment compared to prescribed burning requires further research. [Display omitted] • Exclusion of low-intensity fire in dry Eucalyptus forests has disrupted fire regimes. • Dense regrowth in wet Eucalyptus forests have high risk of uncontrollable wildfires. • Prescribed burning and mechanical treatments can substantially reduce fire hazard. • The effect of fuel removal outweighs the effect of a drier microclimate. • These fuel management techniques have the capacity to re-introduce low-severity fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing regional and global impact of wildfires on the environment, and particularly on the human population, is becoming a focus of the research community. Both fire behaviour and smoke dispersion models are now underpinning strategic and tactical fire management by many government agencies and therefore model accuracy at regional and local scales is increasingly important. This demands accuracy of all the components of the model systems, biomass fuel loads being among the more significant. Validation of spatial fuels maps at a regional scale is uncommon; in part due to the limited availability of independent observations of fuel loads, and in part due to a focus on the impact of model outputs. In this study we evaluate two approaches for estimating fuel loads at a regional scale and test their accuracy against an extensive set of field observations for the State of Victoria, Australia. The first approach, which assumes that fuel accumulation is an attribute of the vegetation class, was developed for the fire behaviour model Phoenix Rapid-Fire, with apparent success; the second approach applies the Community Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) process-based terrestrial biosphere model, implemented at high resolution across the Australian continent. We show that while neither model is accurate over the full range of fine and coarse fuel loads, CABLE biases can be corrected for the full regional domain with a single linear correction, however the classification based Phoenix requires a matrix of factors to correct its bias. We conclude that these examples illustrate that the benefits of simplicity and resolution inherent in classification-based models do not compensate for their lack of accuracy, and that lower resolution but inherently more accurate carbon-cycle models may be preferable for estimating fuel loads for input into smoke dispersion models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans can alter fire dynamics in grassland systems by changing fire frequency, fire seasonality and fuel conditions. These changes have effects on vegetation structure and recovery, species composition, and ecosystem function. Understanding how human management can affect fire regimes is vital to detect potential changes in the resilience of plant communities, and to predict vegetation responses to human interventions. We evaluated the fire regimes of two recently protected areas in Madagascar (Ibity and Itremo NPA) and one in Brazil (Serra do Cipó NP) before and after livestock exclusion and fire suppression policies. We compare the pre- and post-management fire history in these areas and analyze differences in terms of total annual burned area, density of ignitions, burn scar size distribution, fire return period and seasonal fire distribution. More than 90% of total park areas were burned at least once during the studied period, for all parks. We observed a significant reduction in the number of ignitions for Ibity NPA and Serra do Cipó NP after livestock exclusion and active fire suppression, but no significant change in total burned area for each protected area. We also observed a seasonal shift in burning, with fires happening later in the fire season (October–November) after management intervention. However, the protected areas in Madagascar had shorter fire return intervals (3.23 and 1.82 years) than those in Brazil (7.91 years). Our results demonstrate that fire exclusion is unattainable, and probably unwarranted in tropical grassland conservation areas, but show how human intervention in fire and vegetation patterns can alter various aspects of the fire regimes. This information can help with formulating realistic and effective fire management policies in these valuable conservation areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfire suppression management is usually based on fast control of all ignitions, especially in highly populated countries with pervasive values-at-risk. To minimize values-at-risk loss by improving response time of suppression resources it is necessary to anticipate ignitions, which are mainly caused by people. Previous studies have found that human-ignition patterns change spatially and temporally depending on socio-economic activities, hence, the deployment of suppression resources along the year should consider these patterns. However, full suppression capacity is operational only within legally established fire seasons, driven by past events and budgets, which limits response capacity and increases damages out of them. The aim of this study was to assess the temporal definition of fire seasons from the perspective of human-ignition patterns for the case study of Spain, where people cause over 95% of fires. Humans engage in activities that use fire as a tool in certain periods within a year, and in locations linked to specific spatial factors. Geographic variables (population, infrastructures, physiography and land uses) were used as explanatory variables for human-ignition patterns. The changing influence of these geographic variables on occurrence along the year was analysed with day-by-day logistic regression models. Daily models were built for all the municipal units in the two climatic regions in Spain (Atlantic and Mediterranean Spain) from 2002 to 2014, and similar models were grouped within continuous periods, designated as ignition-based seasons. We found three ignition-based seasons in the Mediterranean region and five in the Atlantic zones, not coincidental with calendar seasons, but with a high degree of agreement with current legally designated operational fire seasons. Our results suggest that an additional late-winter-early-spring fire season in the Mediterranean area and the extension of this same season in the Atlantic zone should be re-considered for operational purposes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfire spread and behavior can be limited by fuel treatments, even if their effects can vary according to a number of factors including type, intensity, extension, and spatial arrangement. In this work, we simulated the response of key wildfire exposure metrics to variations in the percentage of treated area, treatment unit size, and spatial arrangement of fuel treatments under different wind intensities. The study was carried out in a fire-prone 625 km 2 agro-pastoral area mostly covered by herbaceous fuels, and located in Northern Sardinia, Italy. We constrained the selection of fuel treatment units to areas covered by specific herbaceous land use classes and low terrain slope (<10%). We treated 2%, 5% and 8% of the landscape area, and identified priority sites to locate the fuel treatment units for all treatment alternatives. The fuel treatment alternatives were designed create diverse mosaics of disconnected treatment units with different sizes (0.5–10 ha, LOW strategy; 10–25 ha, MED strategy; 25–50 ha, LAR strategy); in addition, treatment units in a 100-m buffer around the road network (ROAD strategy) were tested. We assessed pre- and post-treatment wildfire behavior by the Minimum Travel Time (MTT) fire spread algorithm. The simulations replicated a set of southwestern wind speed scenarios (16, 24 and 32 km h −1 ) and the driest fuel moisture conditions observed in the study area. Our results showed that fuel treatments implemented near the existing road network were significantly more efficient than the other alternatives, and this difference was amplified at the highest wind speed. Moreover, the largest treatment unit sizes were the most effective in containing wildfire growth. As expected, increasing the percentage of the landscape treated and reducing wind speed lowered fire exposure profiles for all fuel treatment alternatives, and this was observed at both the landscape scale and for highly valued resources. The methodology presented in this study can support the design and optimization of fuel management programs and policies in agro-pastoral areas of the Mediterranean Basin and herbaceous type landscapes elsewhere, where recurrent grassland fires pose a threat to rural communities, farms and infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire has shaped plant evolution and biogeochemical cycles for millions of years in savanna ecosystems, but changes in natural fire regimes promoted by human land use threaten contemporary conservation efforts. In protected areas in the Brazilian savannas (Cerrado), the predominant management policy is fire suppression, reflecting a cultural heritage which considers that fire always has a negative impact on biodiversity. Here we compare resultant fire-regimes in Canastra National Park (CNP), southeast Brazil, associated with areas under and without fire suppression management, based on a 16-year Landsat imagery record. In open grasslands of the Canastra plateau (CP), firefighting is undertaken under government-sanctioned regulation, whereas in the Babilonia sector, non-sanctioned fire management is undertaken by small farmers to promote cattle grazing and cropping. Fire regimes in the Canastra sector are characterized by few, very large, late dry season wildfires recurring at intervals of two years. Fire regimes in lowlands of the Babilonia sector are characterized by many small-scale, starting at the beginning of the dry season (EDS). In Babilonia uplands fire regimes are characterized by higher frequencies of large fires. The study illustrates major challenges for managing fire-prone areas in conflict-of-interest regions. We suggest that management planning in CNP needs to effectively address: i) managing conflicts between CNP managers and local communities; and ii) fire management practices in order to achieve more ecologically sustainable fire regimes. The study has broader implications for conservation management in fire-prone savannas in South America generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved forest management plans require a better understanding of wildfire risk and behavior to enhance the conservation of biodiversity and plan effective risk mitigation activities across the landscape. More particularly, for spatial fire hazard and risk assessing as well as fire intensity and growth modeling across a landscape, an adequate knowledge of the spatial distribution of key forest fuels attributes is required. Mapping fuel attributes is a challenging and complicated procedure because fuels are highly variable and complex. To simplify, classification schemes are used to summarize the large number of fuel attributes (e.g., height, density, continuity, arrangement, size, form, etc.) into fuel types which groups vegetation classes with a similar predicted fire behavior. Remote sensing is a cost-effective and objective technology that have been used to regularly map fuel types and have demonstrated greater success compared to traditional field surveys, especially with recent advancements in remote sensing data acquisition and fusion techniques. Thus, the main goal of this manuscript is to provide a comprehensive review of the recent remote sensing approaches used for fuel type classification. We build on findings from previous review manuscripts and focus on identifying the key challenges of different mapping approaches and the research gaps that still need to be filled in. To improve classification outcomes, more research into developing state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms with integrated remote sensing data sources is encouraged for future research. This review can be used as a guideline for practitioners, researchers, and decision-makers in the domain of fire management service. • Comprehensive review of fuel type classification from remote sensing products. • Discussing different remote sensing sensors for fuel type mapping. • Highlighting the challenges, opportunities and future trends on remote sensing fuel type classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern Europe, land abandonment and an unbalanced investment toward fire suppression instead of prevention has gradually increased wildfire risk, which calls for a paradigm change in fire management policies. Here we combined scenario analysis, fire landscape modelling, and economic tools to identify which land-use policies would reduce the expected wildfire-related losses in the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve 'Gerês-Xurés' (Spain-Portugal). To do so, we applied the least-cost-plus-net-value-change approach and estimated net changes in wildfire damages based on their implications for the 2010–2050 period and five ecosystem services: agriculture, pasture, timber, recreation and climate regulation. Four land-use scenarios were considered: (1) Business as Usual (BAU); (2) fire-smart, fostering more fire-resistant (less flammable) and/or fire-resilient landscapes (fire-smart); (3) High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf), wherein the abandonment of extensive agriculture is reversed; and (4) a combination of HNVf and fire-smart. HNVf is the best scenario for suppression cost savings, but it generates the lowest net present value of societal benefits from climate regulation. In fact, the most efficient scenario with the lowest societal discounted net suppression costs and change on ecosystem services damages is the HNVf + fire-smart scenario, as it also generates suppression cost savings from agricultural expansion, and lead to a significant reduction in damages on timber and recreational benefits. Therefore, reverting land abandonment through recultivation and promoting fire-resistant tree species is the most efficient way to reduce wildfire hazard. In this sense, payments for ecosystem services should reward farmers and landowners for their role in wildfire prevention. This study improves the understanding of the financial and societal benefits derived from reducing fire suppression spending and ecosystem services damage by undertaking fire-smart land-use strategies, which can be essential to enhance local stakeholders' support for Payments of Ecosystem Services policies for wildfire prevention. • Land-use changes impact wildfire ecosystem services (ES) damages and suppression costs. • Promoting agriculture reduces fire suppression costs in a fire-prone landscape. • Agriculture + fire-resistant forests is the best to reduce wildfire ES damages. • Land-use policies should balance trade-offs between climate and wildfire regulation. • Payments for ES should reward farmers for their role in wildfire prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The homogenization of fire regimes in a landscape may imply a temporal reduction in the availability of resources, such as flowers and fruits, which affect the fauna, as well as ecosystem services. We hypothesized that maintaining mosaic burning regimes, and thereby pyrodiversity, can diversify phenological patterns, ensuring year-round availability of flowers and fruits. Here we monitored open grassy tropical savanna phenology under different historical fire frequencies and fire seasons in a highly heterogeneous landscape in an Indigenous Territory in Brazil. We evaluated phenological patterns of tree and non-tree plants through monthly surveys over three years. These two life forms responded differently to climate and photoperiod variables and to fire. Different fire regimes led to a continuous availability of flowers and fruits, due to the complementarity between tree and non-tree phenologies. Late-season fires are supposed to be more devastating, but we did not detect a significant reduction in flower and fruit production, especially under moderate fire frequency. However, late burning in patches under high frequency resulted in a low availability of ripe fruits in trees. The fruiting of non-tree plants in patches under low fire frequency and early burning ensure ripe fruit, when there are practically no trees fruiting in the entire landscape. We conclude that maintaining a seasonal fire mosaic should be prioritized over historical fire regimes, which lead to homogenization. Fire management is best conducted between the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season, when the risk of burning fertile plants is lower. • Phenological knowledge is fundamental for fire management planning. • Historical fire regimes configured a resilient landscape in the Kadiwéu Indigenous Territory. • Homogenizing fire regimes can be extremely dangerous to flowering and fruiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge to the sustainable development of forestry in the Eurasian temperate - boreal zone is the increase in the frequency and severity of natural disturbances due to global climate change. In this study, a mathematical model for predicting the risk of wildfires in spruce stands growing in the territory of Slovak Paradise National Park under climate change has been proposed and tested. Wildfire risk is described in terms of the observed probabilities of the destruction of spruce stands in relation to their age for a period of 10 years. As the indicators of assumed climate change, the time series of daily values of four fire weather indices (Angstrőm, Nesterov, Baumgartner, and the Meteorological Forest Fire Risk Index) for the period 1951–2019 have been analysed. The results obtained indicated the significant dependence of the observed increasing annual population proportions of burnt areas on the gradually increasing annual population proportions of risky days recorded and evaluated by using the common scales of risk classification. We found that ongoing climate change has a significant impact on increasing the risk of fires. The Meteorological Forest Fire Risk Index has proven to be the most suitable measure for predicting the probability of fire occurrence under the climate conditions in the experimental territory. The indicated risk of fire occurrence in spruce stands under the assumption of a climatic change is substantially higher than in the case when this assumption is neglected. This information can also serve as a basis for the formulation of efficient landscape fire protection measures focused on building the infrastructure to support the efficient retardation of propagation, including the quick suppression of this detrimental natural hazard. [Display omitted] • We proposed and tested a new mathematical model for wildfire risk prediction. • Climate and hazard data observed in spruce forest stands in Slovakia. • As the annual numbers of dangerous days grow, the fire occurrence hazard increases. • Risk in prediction models should be included in forest management planning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire plays a critical role in biodiversity, carbon balance, soil erosion, and nutrient and hydrological cycles. While empirical evidence shows that fuel reduction burning can reduce the incidence, severity and extent of unplanned fires in Australia and elsewhere, the integration of environmental values into fire management operations is not well-defined and requires further research and development. In practice, the priority for fuel reduction burning is effective mitigation of risk to life and property. Environmental management objectives, including maintenance of high quality water, reduction of CO 2 emissions and conservation of biodiversity can be constrained by this priority. We explore trade-offs between fuel reduction burning and environmental management objectives and propose a framework for optimising fuel reduction burning for environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To aid prescribed burn decision making in Table Mountain National Park, in South Africa a priority ranking system was tested. Historically a wildfire suppression strategy was adopted due to wildfires threatening urban areas close to the park, with few prescribed burns conducted. A large percentage of vegetation across the park exceeded the ecological threshold of 15 years. We held a multidisciplinary workshop, to prioritize areas for prescribed burning. Fire Management Blocks were mapped and assessed using the following seven categories: (1) ecological, (2) management, (3) tourism, (4) infrastructure, (5) invasive alien vegetation, (6) wildland-urban interface and (7) heritage. A priority ranking system was used to score each block. The oldest or most threatened vegetation types were not necessarily the top priority blocks. Selected blocks were burnt and burning fewer large blocks proved more effective economically, ecologically and practically due to the limited burning days permitted. The prioritization process was efficient as it could be updated annually following prescribed burns and wildfire incidents. Integration of prescribed burn planning and wildfire suppression strategies resulted in a reduction in operational costs. We recommend protected areas make use of a priority ranking system developed with expert knowledge and stakeholder engagement to determine objective prescribed burn plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and forest management practices influence forest productivity and carbon budgets, and understanding their interactions is necessary to develop accurate predictions of carbon dynamics as many countries in the world strive towards carbon neutrality. Here, we developed a model-coupling framework to simulate the carbon dynamics of boreal forests in China. The expected dynamics of forest recovery and change following intense timber harvesting in the recent past and projected carbon dynamics into the future under different climate change scenarios and forest management practices (e.g., restoration, afforestation, tending, and fuel management). We predict that under current management strategies, climate change would lead to increased fire frequency and intensity, eventually shifting these forests from carbon sinks towards being carbon sources. This study suggests that future boreal forest management should be altered to reduce the probability of fire occurrence and carbon losses caused by catastrophic fires through planting deciduous species, mechanical removal, and prescribed fire. [Display omitted] • The effects of forest management on carbon cycle of boreal forests were quantified. • Climate change would lead to increased fire frequency and intensity. • Future fire activity shifting boreal forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources. • Forest management should reduce carbon losses caused by catastrophic fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous Australians used fire in spinifex deserts for millennia. These practices mostly ceased following European colonisation, but many contemporary Indigenous groups seek to restore 'right-way fire' practices, to meet inter-related social, economic, cultural and biodiversity objectives. However, measuring and reporting on the fire pattern outcomes of management is challenging, because the spatio-temporal patterns of right-way fire are not clearly defined, and because spatio-temporal variability in rainfall makes fire occurrence highly variable in these desert environments. We present an approach for measuring and reporting on fire management outcomes to account for spatio-temporal rainfall variability. The purpose is to support Indigenous groups to assess performance against their management targets, and lay the groundwork for developing an accredited method for valuing combined social, cultural and biodiversity outcomes. We reviewed fire management plans of desert Indigenous groups to identify spatial fire pattern indicators for right-way fire in spinifex deserts. We integrated annual rainfall surfaces with time-since fire mapping (using Landsat imagery) to create a new spatial dataset of accumulated rainfall-since-last-fire, that better represents post-fire vegetation recovery as categorised by local Indigenous people. The fire pattern indicators were merged into a single score using an environmental accounting approach. To strengthen interpretation, we developed an approach for identifying a control area with matching vegetation and fire history, up to the point of management. We applied these methods to a 125,000 ha case study area: Durba Hills, managed by the Martu people of Western Australia. Using a 20-year time series, we show that since right-way fire management at Durba Hills was re-introduced (2009), the fire pattern indicators have improved compared to those in the matched control area, and the composite result is closer to the fine-scaled mosaic of right-way fire pattern targets. Our approach could be used by Indigenous groups to track performance, and inform annual fire management planning. As the indicators are standardised for rainfall variation, results from multiple sites can be aggregated to track changes in performance at larger scales. Finally, our approach could be adapted for other fire-prone areas, both in Australia and internationally with high spatio-temporal rainfall variability, to improve management planning and evaluation. • Measuring changes in fire patterns in areas with variable rainfall is challenging. • Integrating rainfall with fire history data improves estimates of spatial patterns. • Fire pattern indicators were combined using an environmental accounting framework. • We tested the approach in a desert area managed by Indigenous Australians. • Fire management over 10 years is pushing fire towards a pre-colonisation pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of climate change and past management practices, wildfires are becoming larger and occurring more frequently than ever before in the Western U.S. In order to mitigate the effects of this growing threat, fire management agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service have encouraged residents in at-risk communities to protect their homes, property, and communities by adopting Firewise recommendations. Using a survey of wildland-urban interface (WUI) homeowners in fire-prone Deschutes County, Oregon, this study examines homeowners' participation in Firewise activities. While the majority of survey respondents were concerned about the risk of a fire and damage to their property, engagement in pre-fire mitigation actions varied based on the level of concern, previous experience with wildfire, the presence of land use rules and policies, and close proximity to forests or rangelands. In addition, the application of cultural theory (cultural traits) to understand participation in Firewise activities revealed that respondents who have egalitarian cultural traits participate in more Firewise behaviors than those respondents who have hierarchical, individualistic and fatalist cultural traits. Fatalists participate in significantly fewer Firewise activities when compared to the other cultural traits. Results suggest that encouraging more engagement in Firewise activities requires a multi-faceted strategy employing both voluntary and compulsory actions. • People with egalitarian cultural traits are more likely to engage in fire mitigation behaviors. • Concern, experience, and proximity all have a positive relationship to engagement in fire mitigation behaviors. • Fire-resistant building materials and landscaping requirements are effective policy tools for homeowner mitigation actions. • Younger homeowners and women are more likely to engage in fire mitigation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is expected to increase the number of days with meteorological conditions conducive to uncontrollable wildfires. Thus, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of wildfire-prone regions to minimize the adverse impacts of these wildfires by creating resilient landscapes. In this paper we develop a participatory multi-criteria evaluation to identify and map landscape values and prioritize areas according to these values in the Montseny Biophere Reserve (Catalonia, NE Spain). Then, we draft a wildfire management strategy to protect the areas that have been prioritized through selected fuel reduction sectors that would reduce wildfire intensity. Finally, we emphasize the added value of a participatory multi-criteria evaluation in the adaptation to and management of expected megafires. We find that the integration of landscape values through participatory multi-criteria evaluation has the potential to alter wildfire management strategies by adding fuel reduction sectors and changing their implementation order. However, the implementation of the planned fuel reduction treatments faces socioeconomic and institutional barriers that call for a deeper engagement with transdisciplinary project design and transformative science. • A participatory multi-criteria evaluation approach is applied to develop a fire management strategy. • The prioritized areas to protect against wildfires are those containing a great number and diversity of landscape values. • The fire management strategy is based on spatially targeted fuel reduction treatments. • The outcome of the evaluation determines where and in which order fuel reduction treatments should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most of the 20th century and beyond, national wildland fire policies concerning fire suppression and fuels management have primarily focused on forested lands. Using summary statistics and landscape metrics, wildfire spatial patterns and trends for non-forest and forest burned area over the past two decades were examined across the U.S, and federal agency jurisdictions. This study found that wildfires burned more area of non-forest lands than forest lands at the scale of the conterminous and western U.S. and the Department of Interior (DOI). In an agency comparison, 74% of DOI burned area occurred on non-forest lands and 78% of U.S. Forest Service burned area occurred on forested lands. Landscape metrics revealed key differences between forest and non-forest fire patterns and trends in total burned area, burned patch size, distribution, and aggregation over time across the western U.S. Opposite fire patterns emerged between non-forest and forest burns when analyzed at the scale of federal agency jurisdictions. In addition, a fire regime departure analysis comparing current large fire probability with historic fire trends identified certain vegetation types and locations experiencing more fire than historically. These patterns were especially pronounced for cold desert shrublands, such as sagebrush where increases in annual area burned, and fire frequency, size, and juxtaposition have resulted in substantial losses over a twenty-year period. The emerging non-forest fire patterns are primarily due to the rapid expansion of non-native invasive grasses that increase fuel connectivity and fire spread. These invasions promote uncharacteristic frequent fire and loss of native ecosystems at large-scales, accelerating the need to place greater focus on managing invasive species in wildland fire management. Results can be used to inform wildfire management and policy aimed at reducing uncharacteristic wildfire processes and patterns for both non-forest and forest ecosystems as well as identify differing management strategies needed to address the unique wildfire issues each federal agency faces. • Wildland fire policies and management have primarily focused on forested lands. • Landscape metrics quantified wildfire spatial patterns and trends of burned area over two decades. • Nonforest lands had more area burned, increased fire cycles, and larger fire sizes than forested. • Comparison among federal agencies showed increasing but opposite wildfire patterns and trends. • Findings have strong implications for wildland fire management focused solely on forest fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuel load is a primary determinant of fire spread in Australian forests. In east Australian forests, litter and canopy fuel loads and hence fire hazard are thought to be highest at and beyond steady-state fuel loads 15–20 years post-fire. Current methods used to predict fuel loads often rely on course-scale vegetation maps and simple time-since-fire relationships which mask fine-scale processes influencing fuel loads. Here we use Light Detecting and Remote Sensing technology (LiDAR) and field surveys to quantify post-fire mid-story and crown canopy fuel accumulation and fire hazard in Dry Sclerophyll Forests of the Sydney Basin (Australia) at fine spatial-scales (20 × 20 m cell resolution). Fuel cover was quantified in three strata important for crown fire propagation (0.5–4 m, 4–15 m, >15 m) over a 144 km 2 area subject to varying fire fuel ages. Our results show that 1) LiDAR provided a precise measurement of fuel cover in each strata and a less precise but still useful predictor of surface fuels, 2) cover varied greatly within a mapped vegetation class of the same fuel age, particularly for elevated fuel, 3) time-since-fire was a poor predictor of fuel cover and crown fire hazard because fuel loads important for crown fire propagation were variable over a range of fire fuel ages between 2 and 38 years post-fire, and 4) fuel loads and fire hazard can be high in the years immediately following fire. Our results show the benefits of spatially and temporally specific in situ fuel sampling methods such as LiDAR, and are widely applicable for fire management actions which aim to decrease human and environmental losses due to wildfire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire directly impacts soil properties responsible for soil function and can result in soil degradation. Across the globe, climate change-induced droughts and elevated temperatures are exacerbating fire regime severity, breadth, and frequency, thus posing a threat to soil function and dependent ecosystem services. In Australia, the 2019–2020 fire season consumed nearly 50% of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, burning both dry sclerophyll woodland and adjacent historically cleared and grazed pastureland. Due to exacerbated fire regime elements, e.g., intensity and area affected, and interactions with historical land use, post-fire recovery of soil function was uncertain. This study assessed the impacts of a) the 2019–2020 fire event in Western River, Kangaroo Island on dry sclerophyll woodland and b) the interaction between this fire event and historical clearing and grazing on post-fire function of the soil. To do so, the following physicochemical and biological soil properties were analysed: labile active carbon, total carbon, total nitrogen, carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), pH, electrical conductivity, soil water repellency, aggregate stability, microbial community composition, and microbial diversity. Our results showed that the fire was of high severity, causing a reduction in nutrient content, an extreme rise in pH, and significant modifications to fungal communities in burnt compared to unburnt dry sclerophyll woodland. Furthermore, clearing and grazing raised post-fire soil nutrient levels and soil microbial diversity but reduced soil C/N and the abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi in burnt pastureland compared to burnt woodland soils. This study highlights the role of management and fire severity in post-fire outcomes and emphasizes the need for comprehensive soil function assessments to evaluate the impacts of disturbance on soil. Taking direct measure of soil properties, as done here, will improve future assessments of fire season impacts and post-fire recovery in fire-prone landscapes. • Fire severity and historical land use impact post-fire outcomes on soil function. • High severity fire reduced soil nutrients and soil water repellency. • Clearing and grazing raised soil nutrient levels but lowered the soil C/N ratio. • Clearing and grazing reduced pH and the relative abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi. • Both fire and management impacted microbial community composition and diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pantanal biome, at the confluence of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, is the largest continental wetland on the planet and an invaluable reserve of biodiversity. The exceptional 2020 fire season in Pantanal drew particular attention due to the severe wildfires and the catastrophic natural and socio-economic impacts witnessed within the biome. So far, little progress has been made in order to better understand the influence of climate extremes on fire occurrence in Pantanal. Here, we evaluate how extreme hot conditions, through heatwave events, are related to the occurrence and the exacerbation of fires in this region. A historical analysis using a statistical regression model found that heatwaves during the dry season explained 82% of the interannual variability of burned area during the fire season. In a future perspective, an ensemble of CORDEX-CORE simulations assuming different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5), reveal a significant increasing trend in heatwave occurrence over Pantanal. Compared to historical levels, the RCP2.6 scenario leads to more than a doubling in the Pantanal heatwave incidence during the dry season by the second half of the 21st century, followed by a plateauing. Alternatively, RCP8.5 projects a steady increase of heatwave incidence until the end of the century, pointing to a very severe scenario in which heatwave conditions would be observed nearly over all the Pantanal area and during practically all the days of the dry season. Accordingly, favorable conditions for fire spread and consequent large burned areas are expected to occur more often in the future, posing a dramatic short-term threat to the ecosystem if no preservation action is undertaken. [Display omitted] • Historically, burned area and heatwaves can be statistically related in Pantanal. • The percentage of Pantanal under heatwave will most likely increase in the future. • Heatwave incidence reaches 35% near 2100 under RCP2.6 and up to 80% in RCP8.5. • Burned area could increase accordingly, making the historic 2020 fire season merely average in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firescapes of the Mid-Atlantic are understudied compared to other ecosystems in the United States, and little is known about the acceptance of prescribed fire as a forest management tool. Yet, this region harbors high levels of wildland-urban interface (WUI), has a close intermingling of land ownerships, and reflects substantial regional heterogeneity in burning histories and fire hazards. As prescribed fire is increasingly applied in the Mid-Atlantic as a critical tool to meet various land management objectives, research is needed to help managers understand community perceptions of prescribed fire implementation. Through intercept surveys of forest recreationists and online surveys of fire managers, this study investigates perceptions about prescribed fire use in the Mid-Atlantic, in addition to the critical contributing factors of public support toward prescribed fires. Two states, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were selected as case studies to explore regional differences in social perception due to their contrasts in fire history, policy, management objectives, and social exposure. Our results show moderate social awareness of local prescribed fires, moderate to high familiarity with prescribed burning, high agency trust, and strong community support toward prescribed fires. However, the perceived concerns and benefits differed between managers and forest recreationists and between recreationists from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The factors influencing the support of prescribed burning practices included forest management beliefs, concern about prescribed fire effects, familiarity with prescribed fires as a forest management tool, and awareness of local prescribed fires. Collectively, these results highlighted needs in public outreach to strengthen education, build broader community awareness, engage critical stakeholder groups such as forest recreationists, and re-align public outreach messages based on community-level concerns and perceived benefits. Additionally, it will be vital for the scientific community to help monitor critical shifts in forest value orientations and fill in significant research gaps regarding prescribed fire benefits. • We fill crucial social perceptions gaps in prescribed fire use in northeastern US. • We use a structural equation model to identify critical factors of public support. • We reveal a strong public trust and support of prescribed fire management. • Forest management beliefs contribute the most to the support of prescribed fire. • Concerns and benefits varied among recreationists and managers and between regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated management of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) in heterogeneous landscapes requires considering the potential trade-offs between conflicting objectives. The UNESCO's Biosphere Reserve zoning scheme is a suitable context to address these trade-offs by considering multiple management zones that aim to minimise conflicts between management objectives. Moreover, in Mediterranean ecosystems, management and planning also needs to consider drivers of landscape dynamics such as wildfires and traditional farming and forestry practices that have historically shaped landscapes and the biodiversity they host. In this study, we applied a conservation planning approach to prioritise the allocation of management zones under future landscape and climate scenarios. We tested different landscape management scenarios reflecting the outcomes of climate-smart and fire-smart policies. We projected the expected landscape dynamics and associated changes on the distribution of 207 vertebrate species, 4 ES and fire hazard under each scenario. We used Marxan with Zones to allocate three management zones, replicating the Biosphere Reserves zoning scheme ("Core area", "Buffer zone" and "Transition area") to address the various management objectives within the Biosphere Reserve. Our results show that to promote ES supply and biodiversity conservation, while also minimising fire hazard, the reserve will need to: i) Redefine its zoning, especially regarding Core Areas, which need a considerable expansion to help mitigate changes in biodiversity and accommodate ES supply under expected changes in climate and species distribution. ii) Revisit current management policies that will result in encroached landscapes prone to high intensity, uncontrollable wildfires with the potential to heavily damage ecosystems and compromise the supply of ES. Our results support that both climate- and fire-smart policies in the Meseta Ibérica can help develop multifunctional landscapes that help mitigate and adapt to climate change and ensure the best possible maintenance of biodiversity and ES supply under uncertain future climate conditions. • Biodiversity, ecosystem services and fire intensity were integrated in multi-zoning conservation planning. • A redesign of management zones is required to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services in coming decades. • Core areas are under high fire hazard and require urgent changes in management. • Both climate- and fire-smart policies can enhance protected areas' effectiveness and resiliency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing interest in developing extensive fuel treatment programs to prevent catastrophic wildfires in the Mediterranean region, there is little information on the projected effectiveness of fuel treatments in terms of avoided exposure and risk. In Portugal, a fuel management plan aiming to prevent loss of lives, reduce large fires (>500 ha), and reduce annual burned area is under implementation, with particular emphasis on the nation-wide fuel break network (FBN). In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the planned FBN in terms of meeting fire management objectives, costs, and benefits. We first estimated the overall effectiveness of the FBN at intersecting modeled large fires (>500 ha) and at reducing exposure to protected areas and residential buildings using wildfire simulation modeling. Then, the fuel break burn-over percentage, i.e. the percentage of fires that are not contained at the FBN, was modeled as a function of pre-defined flame length thresholds for individual FBN segments. For the planned FBN, the results suggested a potential reduction of up to 13% in the annual burned area due to large fires (ca. 13,000 ha), of up to 8% in the annual number of residential buildings exposed (ca. 100 residential buildings), and up to 14% in the annual burned area in protected areas (ca. 2400 ha). The expected burn-over percentage was highly variable among the segments in response to estimated fire intensity, and an average decrease of 40% of the total benefits was estimated. The most important fuel breaks typically showed a higher percentage of fire burn-over, and hence reduction in effectiveness. We also showed that the current implementation of FBN follows a random sequence, suboptimal for all objectives. Our results suggest that additional landscape-scale fuel reduction strategies are required to meet short-term national wildfire management targets. [Display omitted] • We used fire spread modeling to evaluate the effectiveness of a nation-wide FBN. • Relevant benefits can be expected from the FBN. • A small extent of the FBN is responsible for a great influence to the benefits of FBN. • Extreme fire behavior can decrease FBN effectiveness by 40%. • More fuel reduction actions are required to meet short-term national targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest fires intensify sediment transport and aggravate local and off-site consequences of soil erosion. This study evaluates the influence of post-fire measures on structural and functional sediment connectivity (SC) in five fire-affected Mediterranean catchments, which include 929 sub-catchments, by using the "aggregated index of connectivity" (AIC) at two temporal scenarios: I) immediately after the fire and before implementing post-fire practices ('Pre-man'), and II) two years after the fire ('Post-man'). The latter includes all the emergency stabilization practices, that are hillslope barriers, check-dams and afforestation. The stream system was set as the target of the computation (STR), to be representative of intense rainfall-runoff events with effective sediment delivery outside the catchments. Output normalization (AIC N) allows comparing the results of the five basins between them. The sedimentological analysis is based on specific sediment yield (SSY) –measured at the check-dams installed after the fire –, and this data is used for output evaluation. Stream density and slope variables were the most influential factors on AIC N-STR results at the sub-catchment scale. Post-fire hillslope treatments (barriers when built in high densities and afforestation) significantly reduced AIC N-STR in comparison with untreated areas in both structural and functional approaches. Despite the presence of hillslope treatments, the higher erosive rainfall conditions resulted in higher AIC N-STR values in the Post-man scenario (functional approach). A positive and good correlation was found between the measured SSY and the AIC N-STR changes due to the post-fire practices and vegetation recovery, showing the good correspondence of the computation results and the real sediment dynamics of the studied catchments. Overall, AIC N demonstrated to be a useful and versatile tool for post-fire management, which needs further research to optimize its applicability. [Display omitted] • High-density hillslope barriers and afforestation boosted lower connectivity. • Under intense rainfall conditions, an increase of lateral connectivity is observed. • Check-dams produced a clear and local disconnectivity in the flow path. • Changes in connectivity correlated well with measured SSY and stabilization measures density. • AIC reflected satisfactorily the effects of the different emergency stabilization measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem accounting is emerging as a promising tool for environmental management by offering consistent information about ecosystem change over time. Via a United Nations process, ecosystem accounting has been standardised in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). However, there are currently no examples of ecosystem accounts developed specifically to support Indigenous people's management of land or sea. More than 40% (3 million square kilometres) of Australia's land and sea territory has Indigenous Title. If Indigenous managers are to use ecosystem accounting, then it is essential for them to be involved in its development. We assessed how ecosystem accounts can be developed and applied in a manner that supports the management objectives of Indigenous owners and managers. Working collaboratively with the Yawuru Traditional Owners of the land and sea country around Broome, Western Australia, we constructed and assessed experimental ecosystem accounts for land cover and fire for the period 2000–2020. Three key benefits of ecosystem accounts for supporting the priorities of Yawuru managers were identified: (1) flexibility in the units used for the analysis; (2) the extended time scale of the accounts; and (3) the emphasis on consistent capturing and reporting of data. We also identified the need for further work to incorporate cultural knowledge and values within the broader SEEA, with implications for the recognition of Indigenous people, knowledge and values within accounting systems globally. • First example of ecosystem accounting development in an Indigenous context. • Pilot land cover and fire accounts produced for a 20-year period 2000–2020. • Assessment with Indigenous managers shows potential to support land management. • Further work needed to integrate cultural values with SEEA-Ecosystem Accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assumption that increased wildfire incidence in the Mediterranean Basin during the last decades is an outcome of changes in land use warrants an objective analysis. In this study we examine how annual area burned (BA) in the Portuguese public forest varied in relation to environmental and human-influenced drivers during the 1943–2011 period. Fire behaviour models were used to describe fuel hazard considering biomass removal, cover type changes, area burned, post-disturbance fuel accumulation, forest age-classes distribution and fuel connectivity. Biomass removal decreased rapidly beyond the 1940s, which, along with afforestation, increased fuel hazard until the 1980s; a subsequent decline was caused by increased fire activity. Change point analysis indicates upward shifts in BA in 1952 and in 1973, both corresponding to six-fold increases. Fire weather (expressed by the 90th percentile of the Canadian FWI during summer) increased over the study period, accounting for 18 and 36% of log(BA) variation before 1974 and after 1973, respectively. Regression modelling indicates that BA responds positively to fire weather, fuel hazard and number of fires in descending order of importance; pre-summer and 2-year lagged precipitation respectively decrease and increase BA, but the effects are minor and non-significant when both variables are included in the model. Land use conflicts (expressed through more fires) played a role, but it was afforestation and agricultural abandonment that supported the fire regime shifts, explaining weather-drought as the current major driver of BA as well. We conclude that bottom-up factors, i.e. human-induced changes in landscape flammability and ignition density, can enhance or override the influence of weather-drought on the fire regime in Mediterranean humid regions. A more relevant role of fuel control in fire management policies and practices is warranted by our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]