Science Source
Sensitivity of Portuguese forest fires to climatic, human, and landscape variables: subnational differences between fire drivers in extreme fire years and decadal averages
- States that within the changing fire regimes of Portugal, the relative importance of humans and climatic variability for regional fire statistics remains poorly understood
- Investigates the statistical relationship between temporal dynamics of fire events in Portugal and a set of socioeconomic, landscape, and climatic variables for the time periods of 1980–1990, 1991–2000, and extreme fires years
- Observes moderate shifts in the significance of fire drivers for the first two decadal periods in 10 of 15 districts
- Finds pronounced changes of the significance of fire drivers across time
- Results point toward a dynamic (perhaps highly non-linear) behavior of socioeconomic and landscape fire drivers, especially during the occurrence of extreme fire years of 2003 and 2005
- Finds that at country level, population density alone explained 42% of the inter-annual and inter-district deviance in number of fires
- Results show that at the same temporal and spatial scale, the explanatory power of temperature anomalies proved to explain 43% of area burnt
Related Content
Headline
Oct 26, 2023 | Climate Nexus Hot News
The Planet is ‘Under Siege,’ Scientists Say
Headline
Oct 11, 2023 | Climate Nexus Hot News
Climate Change Forcing Children to Move
Headline
Sep 20, 2023 | AP
In a state used to hurricanes and flooding, Louisiana is battling an unprecedented wildfire season
Headline
Sep 6, 2023 | Climate Nexus Hot News
Study: Climate Change Increases Explosive Wildfire Growth Likelihood 25%
