Artículo de revista
A system to evaluate fire impacts from simulated fire behavior in Mediterranean areas of Central Chile
Fecha
2017Registro en:
Science of the Total Environment 579 (2017) 1410–1418
18791026
00489697
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.11.139
Autor
Castillo Soto, Miguel
Molina, Juan R.
Rodríguez y Silva, Francisco
García Chevesich, Pablo
Garfias, Roberto
Institución
Resumen
Wildfires constitute the greatest economic disruption to Mediterranean ecosystems, from a socio-economic and ecological perspective (Molina et al., 2014). This study proposes to classify fire intensity levels based on potential fire behavior in different types of Mediterranean vegetation types, using two geographical scales. The study considered > 4 thousand wildfires over a period of 25 years, identifying fire behavior on each event, based on simulations using “KITRAL”, a model developed in Chile in 1993 and currently used in the entire country. Fire intensity values allowed results to be classified into six fire effects categories (levels), each of them with field indicators linking energy values with damage related to burned vegetation and wildland urban interface zone. These indicators also facilitated a preliminary assessment of wildfire impact on different Mediterranean land uses and, are therefore, a useful tool to prioritize future interventions.