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Global Wildland Fire Management Research Needs

  • Fire Science and Management (ME Alexander, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This review is on global wildland fire management research needs from the standpoint of “integrated fire management”. It seeks to apply a characterisation of fires to frame research needs, and also recognise some differences in research needs between “normal wildfires” and “extreme wildfire events” and draw some distinctions between the needs for developing and developed countries.

Recent Findings

In the past, the dominant approach to fires in developed countries has been to suppress them including prohibition of fire use. In developing countries, the approach has tended to be similar. However, fires are a landscape problem in both developed and developing contexts, not resulting from insufficient or inadequate means of suppression, but from fuel continuity and accumulation. The impacts of fires are becoming higher profile, due to sizes and intensity in part but also from land use and demographic changes and their interactions, which see more people, more assets and ecological and economic values affected and publicised. Not fully appreciating the ecological role, impact, social, cultural and economic context in which fires are occurring, and the contributing factors and underlying causes of the fire problem, has seen planning, policy, development and other influences, alter landscapes and made populations increasingly vulnerable. Key to successfully integrating ecology, society and fire management technologies is effective analysis of the situation. This requires strengthened focus, including through use of social science and related disciplines. Damaging fires suggest that suppression alone is not sufficient to deal with wildfire, with the damage and loss that results in some cases being catastrophic. The implications of the limits of suppression need to be a component for planning risk reduction, readiness, response and of research. Similarly, comprehensive analyses and figures for damage and losses, including suppression costs, would have implications for wildland fire planning and investment. Existing research findings need to be applied and further research undertaken as necessary.

Summary

Application to wildland fire management globally of existing research, and further research as needed, is required to analyse, select appropriate strategies, and apply management, monitor implementation and enable continuous improvement to reduce vulnerability and underpin resilience. This approach is termed “integrated fire management” and is particularly valuable for developing countries. For them, there may be the potential to reduce or avoid the wildfire damage and loss trends experienced in developed countries, through development and application of what has already been researched and operationalised in other contexts.

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Notes

  1. The term used is ROS, assumed to mean the forward rate of spread of the fire front.

  2. Attributed to Marc Castellnou, a strategic analyst with the fire service in Catalunya, Spain.

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the organisations and projects he has worked on during his career to date that provided the experience and exposure to be able to prepare this paper, the FAO for enabling the work and Dr. Martin Alexander for the invitation to contribute it. Colleagues that were important to the clarification of the “5Rs” framework are acknowledged, Paul de Mar who framed it up and Brett Shields who also contributed to its refinement. The viewpoints expressed here have benefited from innumerable discussions over many years with colleagues in developing countries and fire research for which I thank them, including Hartmut Abberger, David Bowman, Phil Cheney, Stuart Christie, Helmut Dotzauer, Bill de Groot, Alexander Held, Anja Hoffmann, Matt Jolly, Mwangi Kinyanjui, Harry Luke, Francesco Rego, Ross Smith, Cathelijne Stoof and Domingos Xavier Viegas among many.

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    Peter F. Moore

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Moore, P.F. Global Wildland Fire Management Research Needs. Curr Forestry Rep 5, 210–225 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-019-00099-y

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