Fire is the most important natural threat to forests and wooded areas of the
Mediterranean basin. It destroys more trees than parasite attacks, insects,
tornadoes, frost and other natural calamities. The average annual number of
forest fires in the Mediterranean basin, particularly in southern Europe, is close
to 50 000 - twice as many as during the 1970s.
The natural plant ecosystem of the Mediterranean basin is rich in shrubs and coniferous forests and, thus, particularly susceptible to fire. Meanwhile, climate change has resulted in warmer, drier and longer summer periods, and this is expected to increase the frequency and severity of forest fires.
Some 400 000 ha of forest go up in smoke each year in the region, notably in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.
A disaster risk arises when a hazard meets vulnerability. A key factor increasing
vulnerability is the inadequacy of disaster-management planning. Recent forest
fire catastrophes have revealed serious gaps in co-ordination, chain of command
problems, and inadequate resource management and allocation. Often,
information was not updated or was inadequate, leading to inefficient decision
making.
An important step in disaster management is the preparedness stage. This stage
is directly connected with the reduction of risks. Evaluation of hazards, good
planning, proper management strategies and co-operation are vital elements and
will be the main focus of the CALCHAS project. The project will use a
forest-fire simulation tool that is capable of estimating the evolution of a wild
forest fire. The tool does this by using as inputs data on ignition points, real
environmental conditions, the vegetation of the area and spatial information
(isocontours and ground elevation). The CALCHAS consortium will develop
the system in accordance with the national and European policies. Operational
trials will be carried out over a two-year pilot period in two case study areas:
the northern Greek Grammos mountains, and the Troodos mountains in Cyprus.
In each area, 10 meteorological stations will be installed to provide data for the
system. Through the pilots, the project will:
1. Improve the knowledge and skills of civil protection professionals/services on
effective temporal and spatial planning of resources;
2. Improve the knowledge and skills of decision-makers on evacuation planning;
and
3. Increase the effectiveness and readiness of fire brigades, civil protection, local
communities and any other stakeholders to deal with forest fire threats.
The presentation of the "Calchas" system took place on Wednesday at the information centre on Grammos at the Nestorio site.
The project, with a budget of 2,340,839 euros, is financed by the EU (1,158,803.00€, Life+ programme) in cooperation with the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), Terra Nova Ltd., National Technical University of Athens, Marac Electronics S.A., Arcturos, Union of Cyprus Communities.
