Modeling the effects of different fuel treatment mosaics on wildfire spread and behavior in a Mediterranean agro-pastoral area

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 km2 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 (