Workshop - Coimbra | 14th February
2020-02-19 (IPMA)
Research Projects Workshop in the scope of forest fires
Coimbra, 14th February 2020
On February 14, 2020, the 1st Workshop on Scientific Research Projects, within the scope of Forest Fire Prevention and Fighting took place in Coimbra, and that were financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) within the scope of the competitions for IC&DT projects carried out in the years of 2017 and 2018. The Workshop was organized by the FIREFRONT, FIRESTORM and MCFIRE projects, and was attended by a total of 17 research projects.
In particular, FIRESTORM - Weather and Behavior of Fire Storms project, which IPMA is part of, is currently concluding the first of three years and aims to study extreme events of forest fires in Portugal. It is a project led by the Association for the Development of Industrial Aerodynamics (ADAI), with the involvement of 11 technicians from IPMA, as well as the Center for Environmental and Sea Studies (CESAM) of the University of Aveiro (UA) and the Institute Mechanical Engineering (IDMEC) of Instituto Superior Técnico (IST).
One of the initial developments of FIRESTORM project demonstrated the anticipation of the fire season in Portugal in the 21st century compared to an equivalent period in the late 20th century. The graph below shows that in the 2000-2009 and 2010-2018 decades (this last one still incomplete, since it does not yet include 2019), there was an average anticipation of about 2 weeks compared to the decade 1990-1999 (10 and 14 days, respectively) and about 1 and a half months in relation to the 1980-1989 decade (40 and 44 days, respectively).
This anticipation was characterized by the day when 10% of the total burned area is reached in the year and is statistically significant.
IPMA was also represented in the referred Workshop through the FIRECAST project, led by the Association for Research and Development of Sciences (FCiência.ID) and also with the participation of the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA). From the first year of this project, an highlight is, e.g., the investigation of an index that integrates atmospheric instability in the well-known fire hazard index FWI (Fire Weather Index).
The involvement of IPMA in the two projects (FIRESTORM and FIRECAST) is thus complementary, taking into account that the FIRESTORM project will still be involved in the remaining two years in the study on studying the interaction between the atmospheric flows of mesoscale (breezes and gust fronts) and forest fires, as well as contributing to the study of the dispersion of smoke generated by fires and its impact on air quality.
Imagens associadas
Average day per decade in which a certain fraction of the burned area is reached (10%, 20%,…, 90%) in the period between 1980 and 2018 (Analysis: IPMA; Source data: ICNF)
Image 1: Workshop opening session
Image 2: Projects with IPMA´s participation and technicians
Image 3: Projects with IPMA´s participation and technicians
Image 4: Projects with IPMA´s participation and technicians
Image 5: Projects with IPMA´s participation and technicians
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