FIRE - the Future of mItigating Rural firEs

We live in a time when the number of extreme weather events is increasing, technological shifts are waiting just around the corner and the security situation is deteriorating. This increases the risk of rural wildfires, creating the need for new knowledge and an intensified cooperation between first responder organisations, technology manufacturers and forestry/agricultural industry.

FIRE analyses current societal changes that contribute to the risk of rural wildfires. A one-sided focus on individual underlying trends that drive these changes risks leading to misdirected efforts. FIRE therefore analyses the combined impact from climate change, the electrification of society, and the deterioration of the security situation in our immediate area. Based on this holistic understanding, FIRE also develops two new ways of working with related risk information.

Firstly, a new sensor platform to detect ignition risk in vegetation at a meter level; and secondly, new ways of collaborating. This ensures that relevant actors, such as organisations for first responders and civil preparedness, technology manufacturers and forestry/agricultural industry, can act together with regard to new technology such as e.g. detailed fire maps for ignition risk.

These results will be useful for the public, forest industry, agricultural industry, organisations for first responders and civil preparedness, and related parts of the academy. This is ensured through an outreach to relevant meeting places for practitioners; demonstrations of the project's technology for technology companies and authorities; and development of education and training materials for the management of ignition risk by the forest and agricultural industry. In this way, FIRE contributes to stimulating policy, service and product

What are (detailed) fire risk maps? (information from MSB)

The fire risk maps consist of three different maps for ignition and spread-risk:

* Forest fire risk - spread indicates fire behavior and spread-risk.
* Forest fire risk fuel dehydration - indicates the dehydration in the fuel and the lower soil layers that have the greatest importance for a forest fire.
* Grass fire risk - refers to the fire risk in last year's dry grass during the spring.

The fire risk on the maps is a forecast that in Sweden is calculated in squares of 2.8 kilometers by 2.8 kilometers. However, there may locally be areas that have a higher or lower risk than what the forecast indicates. For example, when there are local rain showers during the summer, the fire risk can vary within the calculation window, while a local wetland can be an effective barrier to a fire. Detailed fire risk maps take such variations into account to provide relevant actors with meter-level risk information.

In this way:
* Activities such as forestry are conducted more efficiently and with less risk.
* Preparedness for fires is increased by the rescue service gaining better knowledge of the place where a fire has started.

An increased use of detailed fire risk maps would also contribute to making visible the great knowledge of local conditions that already exists within the professions that move in forests and land. This at a time when such knowledge threatens to be lost or need to be renewed when autonomous and remotely controlled machines are introduced in activities such as forestry and agriculture.

Funded by: MSB, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency ( www.msb.se )

Project Duration: 2024.02.04 - 2027.07.01

Do you want to contribute to the project's goals? Want to know more about our results? Contact us for further information.

Interview with Fredrik Asplund

Contact Information

Lead Researcher

Fredrik Asplund, KTH
https://www.kth.se/profile/fasplund

Project Partners

Skogforsk
www.skogforsk.se

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
www.ri.se