Forest fires: fire spatial and temporal patterns

Forest fires vary in their occurrence throughout the year, and from year to year. A number of parameters characterize fires in a region; these include fire frequency, fire size distribution, fire seasonality, fire type and fire severity, among other. Trends over time in any of these can occur due to a number of drivers that may also change with time. Having good fire statistics is essential to analyse trends over time and determine the underlying causes.

Additionally, fires do not affect equally all areas in a landscape while new areas are becoming fire-prone. Precise fire mapping is necessary to understand the role of driving factors like climate or other land-based features. Moreover, the dynamic nature of the landscape, owing among other to the effect of disturbances such as fire or land management, can affect both spatial and temporal fire patterns.

Management actions and deployment of resources to deter fires are based on where and how fires occur. Understanding how fires vary in space and time is important for assessing the

Effect of uncertainty on objectives.

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of fire and for evaluating the effects of past policies and management decisions on fire activity. Understanding what makes an area to be particularly prone to burn or not is not only important for conserving its values and resources but also for preventing that future management actions, particularly in areas were fires accumulate, do not result in increased vulnerability to wildfires.