Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/113196
Title: Assessing Wildfire Hazard in the Wildland–Urban Interfaces (WUIs) of Central Portugal
Authors: Nunes, Adélia N. 
Figueiredo, Albano 
Pinto, Carlos C. 
Lourenço, Luciano Fernandes 
Keywords: wildfire; wildland–urban interface; probability; susceptibility; central Portugal
Issue Date: 2023
Publisher: MDPI
Project: UIDP/04084/2020 
Serial title, monograph or event: Forests
Volume: 14
Issue: 6
Abstract: In Portugal, the rapid growth in housing in and near wildland–urban interfaces (WUIs) increases the wildfire risk to lives and structures. The goal of our study was to assess wildfire hazard in the Central Region of Portugal and in the contact areas of the 60,373 km of WUIs existing in the study area. The degree to which wildfire is a hazard to the landscape and the different urban interfaces areas was assessed using the spatial arrangement of land use/land cover (LULC), topography, and historical incidence of burnt area. The results show that in more than half of the Central Region territory, the wildfire hazard is high or very high; however, most WUIs are in contact with low or very low hazard classes in a total of 87% of the segments. The LULC analysis in the different wildfire hazard classes in WUI contact areas shows that agricultural crops are predominant in the low and very low hazard classes, while in the very high and high hazard classes shrub communities, coniferous and scrub forests dominate, respectively. These results can assist in designing appropriate prevention measures and improving the effectiveness of fire prevention.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/113196
ISSN: 1999-4907
DOI: 10.3390/f14061106
Rights: openAccess
Appears in Collections:I&D CEGOT - Artigos em Revistas Internacionais
FLUC Geografia - Artigos em Revistas Internacionais

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