Fuel management policies without scientific evidence of fire behavior between managed and unmanaged areas

A research project in Coimbra concluded that there is no significant difference in fire behavior between managed and unmanaged areas close to infrastructure and identified a lack of scientific support for current fuel management policies.

“We have not been able to prove statistically that there is a statistically significant difference between managed and unmanaged areas. [junto a infraestruturas]”, Joaquim Sande Silva, who coordinated the InduForestFire research project together with Joao Paulo Rodrigues, told Lusa.

According to researcher and professor at Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra, the review of legislation regarding fuel management ranges that came out in 2018, following the major fires that occurred the previous year, “was not prepared on any scientific basis, nor were experts from the field even there was no consultation in the drafting of this legislation.”

Focused on supporting policy solutions to mitigate the effects of fires at the urban-forest interface, InduForestFire is led by Itecons – Institute for Research and Technological Development in Construction, Energy, Environment and Sustainability of the University of Coimbra (responsible for the structural component) and Escola Superior Agrária of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (forestry component).

The results and technical recommendations of this scientific project will be presented on Monday at the Higher Agricultural School of Coimbra from 9:00 to 17:30.

In the forestry component, the team focused on fuel management and forest composition around infrastructure “against the backdrop of current legislation, which is in the process of being reviewed and amended.”

According to the researcher, current legislation forces “highly controversial work” where trees of high historical value are being “dumped” without any scientific justification to demonstrate that those same trees would pose a safety risk people and infrastructure. .

“We wanted to compare fire behavior in managed areas and in adjacent unmanaged areas. We did this in ten different locations in the Central region and statistically found no difference in fire behavior between managed and unmanaged areas,” he said. said. .

The researcher emphasized that in managed strips, vegetation is reduced, but because these are more open areas, wind speeds in these areas tend to increase, and the material is “drier and the temperature on the ground is higher.”

According to Joaquim Sande Silva, if you reduce the size of the fuel, you will end up increasing the “conditions for proliferation.”

From a teacher’s perspective, there was some haste in the law passed in 2018 in response to the major fires that occurred last year.

In addition to analyzing fire behavior in the fuel control zones, the project team also analyzed fire behavior in the hardwood zone.

Using fire simulations but using input data “very close to reality,” field fuel characterization collection, and micrometeorology data, it was possible to conclude “that it is more beneficial to have a hardwood cover than to have just one open field.” he decreed.

Additionally, the researcher highlighted that Portugal currently has a “big problem with invasive species” such as acacias, and concluded that there is a preference for their colonization “in these fuel management zones.”

“Maintaining these strips is very unsustainable from a financial point of view, and on the other hand, with hardwoods there is the maintenance of shade, which ensures that very little or nothing grows underneath them,” he emphasized, giving an example. Mata da Margarasa in Arganil, where a fire occurred in October 2017, but whose behavior was very different: a weak fire that eventually died out once it reached the wetter areas of the forest.