Assessing Wildfire Hazard in the Wildland–Urban Interfaces (WUIs) of Central Portugal

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.