Implementation of "Safe Villages" settlements with surrounding areas of high hazard to wildfire: Outlook from the Algarve Region

Abstract

Wildfires in Portugal are increasingly putting the population and existing assets at risk. In the aftermath of the fires of 2017, there was a renovated concern to increase the protection of settlements and the self-protection abilities of the population; as such, several initiatives were developed with the aim of increasing the resilience and safety of communities. This study analyzes the implementation of the 'Safe Villages and Safe People' program, created by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, in the municipalities of the Algarve region, taking into account its spatial distribution and the relationship with hazard levels in the immediate surroundings of settlements (100 m). It also aims to analyze whether this program can be combined with other ongoing initiatives associated with fuel management and landscape transformation in the area surrounding the settlements. For this, a database was created with the location of the Safe Villages already implemented in the Algarve region, with the geographic coordinates defined by a point that intersects the village. This point was then spatially joined with the polygon of the matching built-up area, retrieved from the cartography of Built-up Areas of Portugal, to obtain the boundaries of the villages and delimit the 100 m buffer around. Then, the total hazardous area (of high and very high wildfire hazard) in the 100 m buffer around each Safe Village was retrieved. Finally, the hazardous area around the Safe Villages was analysed in relation to the total hazardous area around all the settlements of the region, to assess the adequacy of “Safe Villages” location with regard to hazard levels for the whole region. Results show that 135 Safe Villages are implemented in 9 municipalities of Algarve. Around 6.6% of the 100 m area surrounding all the settlements in the region presents high and very high hazard. The municipalities of Monchique and Aljezur have the largest hazardous area in the surrounding 100m of all their settlements (61.96% and 20.86%, respectively). When analyzing the implementation of Safe Villages program, the ones implemented in the municipality of Alcoutim cover a greater percentage of surrounding hazardous area (58.08%) in relation to the total. The efficiency of this program and, therefore, the protection of local communities, can be improved by selecting the villages with higher hazardous area around and by combining its implementation with different programs that focus on fuel management that promotes hazard reduction, such as the 'Condominium of Villages', created by the Directorate General of the Territory.