Communication Plan

Wildfires are annually affecting thousands of hectares and are one of the major causes of wooded
surface and forest functions lost all across Europe. Under future climate change scenarios, all EU
countries may undergo increased risk situations associated with fire affecting new areas that
historically had not experienced significant impact from wildfire events and civil protection and global
emergency management will therefore become increasingly important. In this context, the footprint of
high intensity and unprecedented wildfires is likely to increase, causing major socio‐economic impacts.
Arguably, this may represent one of the most pressing challenges in both public safety and forest
management today in many European regions. Characteristically, these high intensity large and/or
widespread fires show very characteristic behaviours and extremely singular patterns of spread with
simultaneity of ignitions. The need for defence and protection with regard to these fires grows
constantly, easily overwhelming the resources and decision making channels available during
suppression. The need for adapting current planning procedures and practices to these types of fires is
obvious, but their current local frequency is low in any particular region, and every planning developer
has difficulties to implement cost‐efficient measures.
Therefore, a cross‐sectoral, transnational view is required to manage and make the best possible use
of the available knowledge from the operational, scientific and technological sectors. This should
facilitate the transfer of key knowledge, best practices and “lessons‐learned” to build the capacity of
planning developers to adapt to this increasingly threatening situation. In parallel, wildfire risk management strategies are currently experiencing significant improvement in efficiency and operational impact, primarily due to the targeted transfer of knowledge based on actual experience in various fields of fire prevention and fighting that are being shared between actors. One of the most innovative knowledge in recent years is the development of anticipatory fire fighting and preventative strategies based on detailed knowledge of fire behaviour patterns which offer a powerful tool for improving wildfire risk mitigation strategies from a cost‐effective approach. These strategies are based on the prediction of risk at different spatial and temporal scales. These allow an effective use of available resources to cover locations in time and space offering more cost‐effective potential for success (i.e. higher risk‐ higher potential for effective fire suppression). Prior knowledge of potential future fire events in a territory allows the rational participation of the actors responsible for landscape management (e.g. forestry and land planning administrations) in reducing fire risk and hazards. The success, in some regions, of this new approaches integrating anticipatory fire fighting strategies into fire fighting plans and landscape management actions offers new possibilities in the applications of such approaches elsewhere in Europe. It is therefore important to mobilize available knowledge, provide new tools, and exchange experiences and the best technical innovations in fire risk management to save time in the learning process and to promote the participation of the actors involved in landscape management.