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Spatio-temporal trends in fire weather in the French Alps
Spatio-temporal trends in fire weather in the French Alps
- Source :
- Science of the Total Environment, Science of the Total Environment, Elsevier, 2017, 595, pp.801-817. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.027⟩, Science of The Total Environment, Science of the Total Environment, 2017, 595, pp.801-817. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.027⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2017.
-
Abstract
- [Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]SEDYVIN; International audience; The Alpine area is particularly sensitive to climatic and environmental changes that might impact socio-ecosystems and modify the regime of natural hazards. Among them, wildfire is of major importance as it threatens both ecosystems and human lives and infrastructures. Wildfires result from complex interactions between available vegetation fuels, climate and weather, and humans who decide of the land use and are the main source of fire ignitions. The changes in fire weather during the past decades are rather unknown in the French Alps especially due to their complex topography. Moreover, local institutions and managers wonder if the ongoing climate changes might increase fire risk and affect the environmental quality and the different ecosystem services provided by the mountain forests. In this context, we used the national forest fires database together with daily meteorological observations from 1959 to 2015 to investigate the changes in wildfire danger in the French Alps. We analysed the spatial and temporal variations in terms of intensity, frequency, seasonality and window of opportunity of two fire weather indices: the fine fuel moisture code (FFMC) and the fire weather index (FWI) that measure the daily water content of vegetation and the potential intensity of fires, respectively. Our results showed a major contrast between Southern Alps with a high fire weather danger on average and a significant increase in the past decades, and Northern Alps with low to moderate danger on average that increased only at low elevations. This study contributes to the understanding of the consequences of ongoings climate changes on wildfires in the French Alps. It produced high resolution results that account for the topographic and climatic variability of the area. Finally, the maps of the different fire weather components have practical implications for fire management and modelling and for preventing indirect effects of fires on ecosystems and human assets.
- Subjects :
- Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Climate Change
[SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes
Climate change
Context (language use)
Fire weather
Wildfire
01 natural sciences
Ecosystem services
[SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems
[SDV.SA.SF]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Silviculture, forestry
Forêt de montagne
Natural hazard
Environmental Chemistry
Ecosystem
Feux de forêts
Waste Management and Disposal
Environmental quality
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
040101 forestry
Changement climatique
Land use
[SDE.IE]Environmental Sciences/Environmental Engineering
Alps
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
Vegetation
15. Life on land
Pollution
[SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society
13. Climate action
Climatology
Incendie de forêt
0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
Environmental science
Mountain forest
[SDV.EE.BIO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Bioclimatology
[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology
Alpes
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00489697 and 18791026
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science of the Total Environment, Science of the Total Environment, Elsevier, 2017, 595, pp.801-817. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.027⟩, Science of The Total Environment, Science of the Total Environment, 2017, 595, pp.801-817. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.027⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....5a022153f9eccec29bae5d6f775a97a2
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.027⟩