The identification of strategic areas for forest fire prevention depends on a wide variety of factors, whether climatic, physical or anthropic.
The zoning of the risk of fire in Sierra de Gata and Hurdes is based on a comprehensive approach based on four fundamental factors: altitude, slope, vegetation and fuel models. For each of these factors they establish a series of fire risk intervals based on statistical analysis.
The sum or combination of each of the risk maps will give us a resulting map that will warn us of those places of greater or lesser fire risk.
The same methodology is carried out on the surfaces of the initiatives proposed in the Mosaic project, also establishing a series of fire risk intervals. The result is a “theoretical” final risk map resulting from the execution of all project initiatives, reducing the risk of fires in this territory by 11.11%.

Methods and materials

Study area
The Sierra de Gata is a mountainous area of ​​the northwest of Extremadura with an area of ​​150,000 hectares. approx., of which 70,000 hectares. They are forests of Pinus Pinaster. It comprises a population of 22,728 inhabitants distributed in 20
municipalities. Agro-livestock production includes olive, chestnut and fruit trees, and grazing goats and sheep in an area of ​​30,000 hectares. approx. Forests, meanwhile, provide wood, resin, NWFP (fungi) and recreation.

Evaluation framework of the study.
The vulnerability assessment framework (VAF) proposed by Valliant et al. (2016). The components, exposure, sensitivity and resilience of VAF will first be measured in a retrospective assessment of landscape vulnerability, followed by a predictive and comparative assessment in different scenarios of project success, including “usual business” ( without project).

Work done by Javier Corbacho
Geographer. Mosaic Technician in Territorial Planning (S.I.G.)