They define a new model of forest resilience against wildfires.

Córdoba, July 24 (EFE).- How do you build a forest landscape that is better able to withstand the impact of fire? A team from the University of Córdoba is working to answer this question and is developing a new complex index to help design forests that are more ecologically, economically, and socially resilient to wildfires.

Researchers are analyzing massive amounts of data on forest fires, their behavior, and their effects on the environment, the University of Córdoba reported Thursday.

The goal of this study is not to prevent fires, "something difficult in Mediterranean ecosystems," but to reduce their severity, limit their damage, and facilitate land recovery.

"Fires will continue to occur," explained Guillermo Palacios, who participates in the project and leads the research at the University of Córdoba, "but we can design landscapes that better coexist with them, that slow their spread, and allow for faster recovery."

One of the project's unique features is that it takes into account future climate change scenarios, which is fundamental to forest management because "the decisions we make today must anticipate the climate scenarios we'll face in 30, 40, or 50 years, when the forest we're managing will need to be fully adapted."

The research team is working on developing and validating a digital tool that analyzes how forest fires have behaved in different environments over the past few decades.

Using geographic, ecological, social, and economic data, they seek to detect patterns that allow them to assess the degree of resilience of a given landscape, thanks to machine learning models, a branch of artificial intelligence.

Designing this resilience index is a complex task that requires a multidisciplinary approach, the University added.

Guillermo Palacios noted that "it's not easy to define what a resilient landscape is" because "for a forestry engineer, it's one that resists fire and regenerates quickly after a blaze, but for a local resident, it may be one that allows them to sustain their livelihood, and for a public manager, it may be one that has the greatest scenic or tourist value."

Therefore, "all these points of view must be reflected in the index and its calculation and mapping tools."

Specific recommendations

In addition to using ecological data such as forest structure and composition, landscape fragmentation, and climatic characteristics, the index also considers social and economic factors such as accessibility, access roads, population proximity, land use, and the availability of fire-fighting resources.

The tool's goal is to help translate data into concrete recommendations, such as creating vegetation patches with different combustibility characteristics or introducing species that can promote efficient regeneration after a fire.

The economic savings this tool can generate are "difficult to quantify," but the costs resulting from a fire go far beyond the loss of trees, as they affect water, carbon emissions, the landscape, tourism, the harvesting of wild products, and personal safety.

This research is part of the Refloresta project, co-funded by Interreg POCTEP and FEDER, and is a cross-border collaboration between entities in Spain and Portugal, bringing together administrations, universities, companies, and forestry associations such as the Universities of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, the University of La Coruña, the regions of Castilla y León and Andalusia, and the companies IDAF and Bóreas. EFE