PREFER

Space-based Information Support for Prevention and REcovery of Forest Fires Emergency in the MediteRranean Area

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'PREFER aims at responding to major fire prevention needs in Southern Europe. All reports on the state of Europe’s forests indicate that the broad Mediterranean area is systematically affected by uncontrolled forest fires with large impact on ecosystems, soil erosion, slope instability, desertification trends, and local economies as a whole, whit a negative mid-to-long term prospect because of Climate Change. In this scenario, the need to improve the information and the intelligence support to forest fire prevention is widely recognized to be relevant. Fire prevention is still the most cost-effective strategy when compared to firefighting and extinguishing that are costly, local, and triggered only in response to already ongoing crises. PREFER intends to contribute to responding to such a pragmatic need of Southern Europe’s forests by : 1) providing timely multi-scale and multi-payload information products based on exploitation of all available spaceborne sensors within the project time frame (the next 3 years) ; 2) offering a portfolio of EO products focused both on Pre-crisis and Post-crisis forest fire emergency cycle in the EU Mediterranean area; 3) preparing the exploitation of new spaceborne sensors available by 2020 (e.g. : Sentinels) and 4) contributing to the definition of User requirements for the new EO missions. PREFER capitalizes on the experience gained in the last decade by the Partners, in the frame of European and national applied research programs focusing on the management of forest fire hazards with spaceborne observation means. It will set up a regional service, able to process and distribute the information to end users, developed and maintained by a regional R&D cluster of core users, industries and research institutes. Through the exploitation of the synoptic character of spaceborne EO data, the regional service is intended to stimulate further the coordination between countries on forest fires prevention in the EU Mediterranean region.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Satellite remote sensing data can be used to help prevent forest fires in the Mediterranean region of Europe, thanks to an EU-funded project.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Mediterranean countries regularly experience uncontrolled forest fires, which result in considerable damage to the local ecosystem. Causes include the occurrence of wet and dry extremes, a shift in traditional land management practices and the coexistence of urban settlements in forests. The impacts of fires involve soil erosion, slope instability and desertification, which will be made worse in the future by the effects of climate change.

The http://www.prefer-copernicus.eu/ (PREFER) project will help to improve the information and intelligence support available for forest fire prevention. Fire prevention continues to be the most cost-effective approach to combating wild fires. This compares with firefighting, which is costly, local in outlook and only triggered in response to an ongoing crisis.

Consortium members will establish a space-based information service that supports prevention/preparedness and recovery from forest fires in the EU Mediterranean region. They also plan to establish a cluster of research institutes, industries and small and medium-sized businesses to provide space-based services and products for forest fire emergency management.

Work conducted by PREFER will enhance the fire fighting ability of EU Mediterranean countries, comprising Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Activities will be based on the exploitation of all available spaceborne sensors (and new spaceborne sensors available by 2020) for managing forest fire hazards.

Project partners will establish a regional service to process and distribute the information to end users. The information service will be based on a harmonised set of users' requirements. These requirements will take into account the different legal frameworks that exist in the participating countries. The interoperable service provision infrastructure will allow easy access to information and optimise the integration of Earth observation, meteorological and other data.

The success of the PREFER project will help to control the outbreak of wild fires in Europe's most heavily forested region, thereby protecting lives, properties and natural ecosystems.