Abstract
The occupation of a territory combines a set of variables which affect the development of the mode by which populations have been organized throughout history. How this occupation takes place demonstrates much of a territory’s past and shows how the populations managed to make the most out of the available resources. The region of Entre-Douro-e-Minho (Northern Portugal), similarly to what happens in other regions, such as Galicia (Northern Spain), Brittany (Northern France), or Ireland, presents a type of dispersed land use, with an alternation of urban, agriculture, and forest areas. On one hand, this proximity allows urban populations to come into contact with a rural environment. On the other hand, this proximity also causes a set of problems, namely those related to rural fires, which are now enhanced by climate change, and associated phenomena, such as heatwaves and the lack of precipitation. The present work analyzes the evolution of rural fires in 1975–2019, in the municipality of Guimarães (Northern Portugal), to understand how these events have been distributed over time and evolved in a climate change scenario. Based on the results and discussion presented, it can be concluded that there is an increasing trend in the occurrence of rural fires in the territory under study, and that this can also be associated to climate change, in the form of a gradual increment in temperature, particularly in the autumn months, and a decrease in rainfall. This situation is responsible for the increment of the risk caused by the proximity of the populations to forest and agricultural areas because rural fires can jeopardize the safety of people and goods.
Highlights
Rural fires affect the interface between natural ecosystems and urban environments, destroying agriculture and forest production capacity and ecosystem services [1,2,3]
This interface between the urban and rural environments is commonly artificialized and subject to an increasing pressure due to the expansion of urban zones, and it is of great importance [7,8,9]. It often provides the only point of contact with the natural environment to which urban populations have access [10,11]. In addition to this access facilitated by the proximity, this rural agroforest interface presents the only possibility for providing a set of ecosystem services, increasingly recognized and valued, that go far beyond the simple provision of an environment for leisure activities or for agricultural and forestry production [12,13]
The present study aims to carry out a historical retrospective study of the succession of rural fires in Guimarães (Northern Portugal) from 1975 to 2019
Summary
Rural fires affect the interface between natural ecosystems and urban environments, destroying agriculture and forest production capacity and ecosystem services [1,2,3]. The occurrence of fires, especially in Mediterranean-type regions such as Portugal, has a highly negative impact on several areas, such as the economy, through the destruction of property and heritage, and the environment, through the destruction of natural areas [4,5,6] This interface between the urban and rural environments is commonly artificialized and subject to an increasing pressure due to the expansion of urban zones, and it is of great importance [7,8,9]. It often provides the only point of contact with the natural environment to which urban populations have access [10,11] In addition to this access facilitated by the proximity, this rural agroforest interface presents the only possibility for providing a set of ecosystem services, increasingly recognized and valued, that go far beyond the simple provision of an environment for leisure activities or for agricultural and forestry production [12,13].
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