Innovative Action for Forest Fire Prevention in Kythira Island, Greece, through Mobilization and Cooperation of the Population: Methodology and Challenges

Gavriil Xanthopoulos,Vassiliki Varela,Miltos Gletsos,Alexia Nikiforaki,Georgios Mantakas,Panagiotis Xanthopoulos,Miltiadis Athanasiou,Charalampos Papoutsakis,Stavros Sofronas,Aikaterini Christopoulou,Konstantinos Kaoukis

doi:10.3390/su14020594

Abstract

The island of Kythira in Greece suffered a major forest fire in 2017 that burned 8.91% of its total area and revealed many challenges regarding fire management. Following that, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature joined forces with the Institute of Mediterranean and Forest Ecosystems in a project aiming to improve fire prevention there through mobilization and cooperation of the population. This paper describes the methodology and the results. The latter include an in-depth analysis of fire statistics for the island, development of a forest fuels map, and prevention planning for selected settlements based on fire modeling and on an assessment of the vulnerability of 610 structures, carried out with the contribution of groups of volunteers. Emphasis was placed on informing locals, including students, through talks and workshops, on how to prevent forest fires and prepare their homes and themselves for such an event, and on mobilizing them to carry out fuel management and forest rehabilitation work. In the final section of the paper, the challenges that the two partners faced and the project achievements and shortcomings are presented and discussed, leading to conclusions that can be useful for similar efforts in other places in Greece and elsewhere.

Highlights

Published: 6 January 2022Forest fires are a natural process of most forest ecosystems around the world but at the same time, due to their environmental, social, and economic impacts, they constitute a significant natural hazard, a problem that societies have to face
The search for forest fire records in the newspapers and the analysis of the fire statistics revealed the patterns of fire on the island
All theactivities activities describedearlier earlier have certainly contributed towards the main obAll contributed towards thethe main objecAllthe the activitiesdescribed described earlierhave havecertainly certainly contributed towards main objective of the project, to improve forest fire prevention in Kythira

Summary

Introduction

Published: 6 January 2022Forest fires are a natural process of most forest ecosystems around the world but at the same time, due to their environmental, social, and economic impacts, they constitute a significant natural hazard, a problem that societies have to face. Extreme fires that exceed by far the capacity of even the most competent firefighting mechanisms, often causing huge damage and multiple fatalities in addition to vast burned areas, tend to become commonplace [5,6,7,8] while, in parallel, significant fires have started to occur in unusual places, such as countries in the northern latitudes [9,10,11] Such large fires do have devastating effects on vegetation, soil erosion, flooding [12] water quality [13], carbon sequestration [14], etc., but they upset the economy, function and psychology of local societies [15,16].

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion