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Planning and assessing the effectiveness of traditional silvicultural treatments for mitigating wildfire hazard in pine woodlands of Greece

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Abstract

In the current paper, an attempt is being made to present and assess the effectiveness of traditional silvicultural treatments in mitigating wildfire initiation and spread, in a typical Mediterranean forest which is located in Vartholomio, southern Greece. The proposed silvicultural interventions combine thinning and pruning, in various levels of intensity at strategic points creating shaded fuelbreaks, in order to successfully support wildfire suppression actions. NEXUS software was applied in an effort to assess the effectiveness of the proposed silvicultural treatments. The results clearly showed that conventional silvicultural treatments may drastically reduce critical characteristics of a potential wildfire. The number of historic ignitions and the flammability of the forest species reveal the vulnerability of the specific forest against wildfire occurrences. On the contrary, its protective role against desertification is of paramount importance; thus, the minimization of wildfire threat constitutes a priority action.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Silviculture, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 262, 54 124, Thessaloníki, Greece

    Th. Zagas & D. Raptis

  2. Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote Sensing, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloníki, Greece

    D. Zagas & D. Karamanolis

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  1. Th. Zagas
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  2. D. Raptis
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  3. D. Zagas
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Correspondence to Th. Zagas.

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Zagas, T., Raptis, D., Zagas, D. et al. Planning and assessing the effectiveness of traditional silvicultural treatments for mitigating wildfire hazard in pine woodlands of Greece. Nat Hazards 65, 545–561 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0380-5

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