Sustainable Land-Use, Wildfires, and Evolving Local Contexts in a Mediterranean Country, 2000–2015

Maurizio Marchi, Francesco Chianucci, Carlotta Ferrara, Giorgio Pontuale, Elisa Pontuale, Anastasios Mavrakis, Nathan Morrow, Fabrizio Rossi and Luca Salvati
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Maurizio Marchi: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)—Research Centre for Forestry and Woods, Via Santa Margherita 80, I-52100 Arezzo, Italy
Francesco Chianucci: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)—Research Centre for Agricolture and Environment, Via della Navicella 2-4, I-00184 Rome, Italy
Carlotta Ferrara: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)—Research Centre for Forestry and Woods, Via Santa Margherita 80, I-52100 Arezzo, Italy
Giorgio Pontuale: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)—Research Centre for Forestry and Woods, Via Santa Margherita 80, I-52100 Arezzo, Italy
Elisa Pontuale: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)—Research Centre for Forestry and Woods, Via Santa Margherita 80, I-52100 Arezzo, Italy
Anastasios Mavrakis: Department of Economic and Regional Development, Institute of Urban Environment and Human Resources, Panteion University of Athens, 136 Syngrou Avenue, GR-17671 Athens, Greece
Nathan Morrow: School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Fabrizio Rossi: Department DEIM, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso 47, I-01100 Viterbo, Italy
Luca Salvati: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA)—Research Centre for Forestry and Woods, Via Santa Margherita 80, I-52100 Arezzo, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: Socioeconomic conditions and land management choices combine to affect changes in long-term wildfire regimes in Mediterranean-type ecosystems. Identification of specific drivers and dynamics at the local level is needed to inform land resource planning and to enhance wildfire management efficiency. Therefore, investigating feedback relationships between wildfire and socioeconomic conditions at local and regional scales can reveal consistency in spatial and temporal patterns influencing wildfire frequency, intensity, and severity. This study assessed long-term wildfire characteristics in Greece—one of the most fire-prone countries in Europe—over two consecutive time periods characterized by economic expansion (2000–2007) and recession (2008–2015). An integrated, multivariate statistical approach was implemented to assess the latent relationship between socioeconomic forces and localized wildfire regime indicators. Changes in the number of fires at the wildland–urban interface and duration of wildfires were consistent with expectations. Observed changes in the size of fires showed mixed results. Empirical findings of this study indicate analysis of wildfire regimes that takes into account both the socioeconomic and environmental factors in the overall territorial context of Mediterranean-type ecosystems, at both regional and local scale, may prove informative for the design of wildfire prevention measures in Greece.

Keywords: fires; urban sprawl; economic crisis; multivariate analysis; Mediterranean region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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