Aim of study: This paper aims to test a participatory methodology to draw parallels and paradoxes as to how some forest sector- related entities and local communities view the Montemuro Mountain forest, namely in terms of its characteristics, the offered opportunities, its problems and the likely solutions for its management as well as the role played by stakeholders, which can be replicated in other case studies and can also facilitate the forest policy making process. Area of study: The Natura 2000 Network “Montemuro Mountain” Site in Portugal. Material and methods: This study combined several consultation and citizen participation techniques. Main results: The perceptions shared by the stakeholders are some similar, others not similar and others still quite paradoxical regarding forest characteristics and the opportunities they offer. The study has shown that it is possible to implement and improve citizen participation methodologies. This can be a viable way towards more effective forest management and fire prevention as this may help blunt conflicts of interest in forest space management. However, for participation to be truly effective and representative, a policy regarding training and awareness of the importance of information is necessary. Research highlights: The stakeholder perceptions on forests and forest management are assessed; forest fires and agrarian aban- donment are central for territory’s development; depopulation, old age and absenteeism emphasize degradation of forest areas; Conscious citizen participation benefit policymaking and forest management.

Most countries of Mediterranean Europe are strongly affected by forest fires, with major socio-economic and environmental impacts that can spread over several regions and countries. A transnational approach allows creating synergies regarding resource sharing and problem-solving strategies. The access to high quality and up-to-date information is critical to improve fire hazard mitigation measures and promote comparable appraisals between different regions. Several collaborative initiatives have been implemented in Europe to foster research and service development, focusing on common issues amongst countries. The PREFER project was one of these initiatives, with the purpose of contributing to protect human communities and forests from fire hazard, by providing cartographic products through the implementation of a new systematic framework. The participation of end users, such as civil protection organizations and forest services, covering the Euro-Mediterranean region, was crucial to ensure the operational application of the mapping products. Fuel classification, daily fire hazard indices, vulnerability assessment and damage severity levels were some of the mapping applications developed for several test areas in Mediterranean Europe. This chapter illustrates the potential enhancements for forest fire management offered by this framework, bearing in mind the benefits of applying shared and harmonized approaches for common issues.

The Municipal Plan to Protect Forests from Fires (MPPFF) emerged from the National Defense System of the Forest against Fire defined firstly by the Decree-Law nr. 156/2004, of June 30th, repealed by the Decree-Law nr. 124/2006, of June 28th, that was then altered by the Decree-Law nr. 17/2009, of January 14th. The MPPFF Monchique defines the necessary measures for the forest defense against fires and includes integrated forecasting and planning of interventions by different entities before the occurrence of fires, within the jurisdiction of the Municipal Commission of the Defense of the Forest against Fire in Monchique. The MPPFF Monchique also aims intended to operate at local and municipal guidelines established in the National Plan to Protect Forests from Fires and District Plan to Protect Forests from Fires, being equally elaborated in line with the Regional Forest Management Plan for the Algarve.

Forest and fire management planning activities are carried out mostly independently of each other. This paper discusses research aiming at the development of methods and tools that can be used for enhanced integration of forest and fire management planning activities. Specifically, fire damage models were developed for Eucalyptus globulus Labill stands in Portugal. Models are based on easily measurable forest characteristics so that forest managers may predict post-fire mortality based on forest structure. For this purpose, biometric data and fire-damage descriptors from 2005/2006 National Forest Inventory plots and other sample plots within 2006, 2007 and 2008 fire areas were used. A three-step modelling strategy based on logistic regression methods was used. In the first step, a model was developed to predict whether mortality occurs after a wildfire in a eucalypt stand. In the second step the degree of damage caused by wildfires in stands where mortality occurs is quantified (i.e. percentage of mortality). In the third step this mortality is distributed among trees. Data from over 85 plots and 1648 trees were used for modeling purposes. The damage models show that relative damage increases with stand basal area. Tree level mortality models indicate that trees with high diameters, in dominant positions and located in regular stands are less prone to die when a wildfire occurs

Along with other Southern European countries, Portugal has, each year, enormous damages resulting directly and/or indirectly from forest fire activity, with obvious ecological, financial and social implications. In the last thirty years, more than 3 million hectares of the Portuguese territory have been burnt, placing Portugal on the top-five European Countries most affected by forest fires. Prevention and planning arise as one the most important strategies to minimize the consequences of these hazardous events. To fulfil those goals, information, either to be used by decision makers or for public awareness plays a major role. Thus, the importance of the development and use of different forest fire danger estimation systems is clearly obvious. The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System (FWI), developed by the Canadian Forestry Service is based on daily values of temperature, relative humidity, wind at noon and 24-hour accumulated precipitation and is used to estimate the fire risk in Portugal. Advances in computer power in association with state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction models enables increasingly higher resolution weather forecasts, which can be used to replace the initial weather station data dependency, to produce finer detail on local and regional atmospheric circulation patterns, not always possible with a weather station network. The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), via it’s Advanced Research WRF (ARW) core can be used to generate inputs for the estimation of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI). Forecasts (day +1 and day +2 ) of meteorological variables, allows the computation of the FWI system components in each gridpoint of a high resolution domain (3 km), covering the Portuguese territory. Thus, the main objectives of this preliminary study are: 1) to investigate if the WRF-based FWI components can mimic the spatial distribution of area burned, both for an exceptional and average fire seasons; 2) to evaluate if these high-resolution weather forecasts can provide an added-value for forest fire danger estimation and 3) to analyze the potential use of the coupled WRF-FWI system as a tool for producing fire weather risk maps to the community, contributing, thus, for the prevention of wildfires. The WRF model setup, data sources characteristics used for its initialization and the FWI computation scheme are thoroughly described. Results evaluation are based on the comparison of grid-based and station-based FWI and with fire-scars locations, for 2003 and 2009 fire seasons. The 2003 fire season was, both in terms of number of occurrences and area burned, the worst of the last 25 years fire season in Portugal while, on the other hand, 2009 fire season has been considered as an average year in terms of number of fires.

This study is focused on the modelling of the production of bio-oil by thermochemical liquefaction. Species Acacia melanoxylon was used as the source of biomass, the standard chemical 2-Ethylhexanol (2-EHEX) was used as solvent, p-Toluenesulfonic acid (pTSA) was used as the catalyst, and acetone was used for the washing process. This procedure consisted of a moderate acid-catalysed liquefaction process and was applied at 3 different temperatures to determine the proper model: 100, 135, and 170 ◦C, and at 30-, 115-, and 200-min periods with 0.5%, 5.25%, and 10% (m/m) catalyst concentrations of overall mass. Optimized results showed a bio-oil yield of 83.29% and an HHV of 34.31 MJ/kg. A central composite face-centred (CCF) design was applied to the liquefaction reaction optimization. Reaction time, reaction temperature, as well as catalyst concentration, were chosen as independent variables. The resulting model exhibited very good results, with a highly adjusted R-squared (1.000). The liquefied products and biochar samples were characterized by Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA); scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also performed. The results show that invasive species such as acacia may have very good potential to generate biofuels and utilize lignocellulosic biomass in different ways. Additionally, using acacia as feedstock for bio-oil liquefaction will allow the valorisation of woody biomass and prevent forest fires as well. Besides, this process may provide a chance to control the invasive species in the forests, reduce the effect of forest fires, and produce bio-oil as a renewable energy.

While the Mediterranean basin is foreseen to be highly affected by climate change (CC) and severe forest fires are expected to be more frequent, international efforts to fight against CC do not consider forest fires’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions risk and the possibility of its mitigation. This is partly due to a lack of a methodology for GHG risk spatial assessment and consideration of the high value of carbon stocks in forest ecosystems and their intrinsic risk. To revert this, an innovative GHG emission risk model has been developed and implemented in a pilot forest area. This model considers geospatial variables to build up emission vulnerability based on potential fire severity and resistance of a landscape, value at risk and the hazard of a fire occurrence. The results classify low, moderate and high emission risks in the analysed areas. This identification of hotspots allows the prioritisation of fire prevention measures in a region to maximise the reduction of GHG emissions in the case of a fire event. This constitutes the first step in a holistic and consistent CC mitigation that not only considers anthropic GHG sources but also possible GHG emissions by forest fires that can be actively prevented, managed and reduced

O projeto de investigação do património histórico-arqueológico de Vouzela (2016-2019) previa a prospeção do território, apesar de a densa cobertura florestal limitar severamente a sua realização. Porém, os trágicos incêndios de 15 de outubro de 2017 permitiram a abordagem extensiva das áreas ardidas (73% do território), o que resultou num aumento exponencial do número de registos em todas as categorias. Em termos da sua salvaguarda, implementaram-se medidas integradas no terreno (sinalização de sítios, contactos com proprietários, acompanhamento e fiscalização de trabalhos silvícolas, definição de áreas de não reflorestação, e ações de divulgação e sensibilização junto das populações locais) e em gabinete (inventário sistemático de ocorrências e definição de áreas de proteção georreferenciadas). The research project on the historical-archaeological heritage of Vouzela (2016-2019) aimed at the survey of the territory, although this was severely limited by the dense forest cover. However, the tragic forest fires of October 15th 2017 allowed a more extensive approach to the burnt areas (73% of the territory) to be carried out. This resulted in an exponential increase in the number of sites in all categories. In terms of safeguarding, integrated measures have been implemented both in the field (site signalling, contacts with owners, monitoring and surveillance of forestry works, definition of non-reforestation areas, outreach and awareness-raising actions among local populations) and in the municipality’s services (systematic inventories and definition of georeferenced protection areas).

In Mediterranean areas, forest fires are a considerable risk most years. The seasonality of the climate with a dry summer, high temperatures and low rainfall (which implies increased flammability of materials) is one of the main factors in the ignition and progression of fires. This factor conjugated with more favourable biophysical conditions (e.g., high slopes, aspect) leads to easy propagation and the increasingly destructive power of such phenomena. To prevent and reduce the consequences of forest fires, it is necessary to simulate and forecast the territory use and management, not only focused on forest areas, but also on all land uses and agricultural activities that may coexist there, considering the probability of fire occurrence. The objective of this paper is to present a methodological approach to address the integration of fire risk in integrated Mediterranean forest management models. The methodological approach considers simultaneously the climatic conditions through different times of the year (more or less favourable to forest fire damage) and structural conditions addressed to land uses, aspect, slope, roads and demographic density. The methodological approach was implemented in a management area located in the Algarve, in southern Portugal. The results for the Algarve region showed that the proposed approach is very useful for managers, since it allowed the calculation of fire susceptibility, vulnerability and fire damage, according to several climatic scenarios. It also allowed the incorporation of different paths regarding different fire risk conditions and the minimization of risk due to fire damage through different management responses.

Forest fires have been a major threat to the environment throughout history. In order to mitigate its consequences, we present, in a first of a series of works, a mathematical model with the purpose of predicting fire spreading in a given land portion divided into patches, considering the area and the rate of spread of each patch as inputs. The rate of spread can be estimated from previous knowledge on fuel availability, weather and terrain conditions. We compute the time duration of the spreading process in a land patch in order to construct and parametrize a landscape network, using cellular automata simulations. We use the multilayer network model to propose a network of networks at the landscape scale, where the nodes are the local patches, each with their own spreading dynamics. We compute some respective network measures and aim, in further work, for the establishment of a fire-break structure according to increasing accuracy simulation results.

The number of forest fires ignitions has decreased worldwide, thus observing increased levels of intensity and destruction, endangering urban areas and causing material damages and deaths (Portugal, 2017). Forest fire hazard mapping supported by the surveillance strategy targeted at very susceptible areas with high losses potential are the common tools of fire prevention. Each municipality creates its own Forest Fire Hazard Map, and so it is observed that along the administrative boundaries, discrepancies occur, even when identical types of land use are in place. The evolution of geographic information systems technology sustained by the open-source satellite imagery, along with the innovative Habitat Risk Assessment model of the InVEST software, allowed the creation of an easily applicable trans-administrative boundary fire hazard map, with frequent update capabilities and fully open source. This work considered three municipalities (Tomar, Ourém, and Ferreira do Zêzere) that annually observe various forest fire occurrences. Results enabled the creation of a homogeneous Forest Fire Risk Map, using landuse, slope, road access network, fire ignitions’ history, visualization basins, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as variables. All variables correlate with each other using different weights, in which the different classes of land use are considered as habitats and the remaining variables as fire hazard stressors. The results produce a coherent monthly updated Risk Map, which is an alternative to many risk assessment systems used worldwide.