This paper presents an analysis of the fire trends in southern European countries, where forest fires are a major hazard. Data on number of fires and burned area size from 1985 until 2009 were retrieved from the Europ...This paper presents an analysis of the fire trends in southern European countries, where forest fires are a major hazard. Data on number of fires and burned area size from 1985 until 2009 were retrieved from the European Fire Database in the European Forest Fire Information System and used to study the temporal and spatial variability of fire occurrence at three different spatial scales： the whole European Mediterranean region, country level and province level （NUTS3）. The temporal trends were assessed with the Mann-Kendall test and Sen＇s slope in the period 1985-2009. At regional （supranational） level, our results suggest a significant decreasing trend in the burned area for the whole study period. At country level, the trends vary by country, although there is a general increase in number of fires, mainly in Portugal, and a decrease in bumed areas, as is the case of Spain. A similar behavior was found at NUTS3 level, with an increase of number of fires in the Spanish and Portuguese provinces and a generalized decrease of the burned area in most provinces of the region. These results provide an important insight into the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of fires, a crucial step to investigate the underlying causes and impacts of fire occurrence in this region.展开更多
文摘This paper presents an analysis of the fire trends in southern European countries, where forest fires are a major hazard. Data on number of fires and burned area size from 1985 until 2009 were retrieved from the European Fire Database in the European Forest Fire Information System and used to study the temporal and spatial variability of fire occurrence at three different spatial scales： the whole European Mediterranean region, country level and province level （NUTS3）. The temporal trends were assessed with the Mann-Kendall test and Sen＇s slope in the period 1985-2009. At regional （supranational） level, our results suggest a significant decreasing trend in the burned area for the whole study period. At country level, the trends vary by country, although there is a general increase in number of fires, mainly in Portugal, and a decrease in bumed areas, as is the case of Spain. A similar behavior was found at NUTS3 level, with an increase of number of fires in the Spanish and Portuguese provinces and a generalized decrease of the burned area in most provinces of the region. These results provide an important insight into the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of fires, a crucial step to investigate the underlying causes and impacts of fire occurrence in this region.
