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Ng CY, Wan Jaafar WZ, Othman F, Lai SH, Mei Y, Juneng L. Assessment of Evaporative Demand Drought Index for drought analysis in Peninsular Malaysia. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 917:170249. [PMID: 38278251 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Revised: 11/26/2023] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 01/28/2024]
Abstract
An effective drought monitoring tool is essential for the development of timely drought early warning system. This study evaluates Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) as a drought indicator in measuring spatiotemporal evolution of droughts over Peninsular Malaysia during 1989-2018. The modified Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope tests were performed to detect the presence of monotonic trends in EDDI, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and their related climate variables. The performance of EDDI in capturing the drought onset, evolutions and demise of historical severe droughts was also compared with SPI and SPEI at multiple timescales. EDDI demonstrates strong spatiotemporal correlations with SPI and SPEI and comparable performance in historical drought events identification. At sub-monthly timescale, 2-week EDDI displays equivalent drought severities and durations for all historical severe droughts corresponding to the monthly EDDI. In the case when rainfall deficits are normalized in an otherwise warm and dry month, EDDI may serve as a great alternative to SPI and SPEI due to it being sensitive to the changes in prevalent atmospheric conditions. Collectively, the results fill in the knowledge gaps on drought evolutions from the evaporative perspective and highlight the efficacy of EDDI as a valuable drought early warning tool for Peninsular Malaysia. Future study should explore the physical mechanisms behind the development of flash drought and the role of evaporation in the drought propagation processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cia Yik Ng
- Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia.
| | - Wan Zurina Wan Jaafar
- Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia.
| | - Faridah Othman
- Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia.
| | - Sai Hin Lai
- Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia.
| | - Yiwen Mei
- Carbon-Water Research Station in Karst Regions of Northern Guangdong, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, China.
| | - Liew Juneng
- Center for Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia.
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2
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Liu L, Guan J, Zheng J, Wang Y, Han W, Liu Y. Cumulative effects of drought have an impact on net primary productivity stability in Central Asian grasslands. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 344:118734. [PMID: 37572401 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Revised: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 07/29/2023] [Indexed: 08/14/2023]
Abstract
Global warming has exacerbated the threat of drought in Central Asia, amplifying its ecological implications within the region's grassland ecosystems. This has become an increasingly prominent issue that requires attention and action. The temporal link between grassland development and drought is asymmetric. However, a quantitative assessment of the temporal effects of multiscale drought on Central Asian grasslands has yet to be explored. Based on correlation analysis and the coefficient of variation method, this study analysed the cumulative and lag effects of multitimescale drought on grassland NPP (net primary productivity) under different climatic zones, altitudes and water availabilities in Central Asia from 1982 to 2018, and discussed the impact of temporal effects on grassland NPP stability. Our results on the cumulative effects of drought on grasslands indicate the 6.72 months preceding NPP measurement was the duration for which, on average, drought was most strongly correlated with NPP. Additionally, we found a mean lagged effect of 5.36 months, meaning that the monthly drought 5.36 months prior to NPP measurement was, on average, most strongly correlated with NPP. The degree to which grassland NPP was affected by cumulative drought at a given level of water availability was inversely proportional to the number of cumulative drought months. Under different water availabilities, the lagged effect of grassland NPP was stronger in dry areas than in wet areas, and the number of lag months tended to decrease and then increase as the water availability increased. The percentage of areas where grassland NPP was dominated by the cumulative and lagging effects of drought was 30.02% and 69.98%, respectively. The stability of grassland NPP was adversely affected by the drought accumulation effect. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the long-term effects of drought on grassland ecosystems. Additionally, it will aid in the development of strategies for mitigating and adapting to drought events, thereby minimizing their negative impacts on agriculture, livestock, and ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Liu
- College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China
| | - Jingyun Guan
- College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China; College of Tourism, Xinjiang University of Finance & Economics, Urumqi, 830012, China
| | - Jianghua Zheng
- College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China; Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China.
| | - Yongdong Wang
- College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China
| | - Wanqiang Han
- College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China
| | - Yujia Liu
- College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China
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3
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Extremes Rainfall Events on Riparian Flora and Vegetation in the Mediterranean Basin: A Challenging but Completely Unexplored Theme. WATER 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/w14050817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
In a global climate change scenario “Extreme climatic events” are expected to widely affect flora and vegetation in Med-regions, especially “Extremes Rainfall Events” which will have impacts on riparian environments. Aiming to provide an in-depth picture on the effects of these events on the riparian flora and vegetation in the Mediterranean Basin, especially focusing on islands, a bibliographic search was performed in the main international databases, which led to 571 articles published from 2000 to 2021. Most studies have analyzed these phenomena from the climatic point of view identifying three main topics “Rainfall”, “Global/Climate change”, and “Flood”. 81 papers concerned effects of extreme events on Mediterranean woodland formations and cultivated plants. A further analysis focused on European countries and Mediterranean bioregion using “Extreme rainfall events” and “Extreme rainfall and floods” as keywords. A low number of records relating to Mediterranean island regions was found, having Sicily as the study area. Moreover, seven articles had Sardinia as a study area, four of which referred to flora and vegetation. A lack of studies on the effects of extreme rainfall events on riparian flora and vegetation were highlighted. This review constitutes a call for researchers to explore extreme phenomena that have become recurrent in the Mediterranean Basin.
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Resco de Dios V, Cunill Camprubí À, Pérez-Zanón N, Peña JC, Martínez Del Castillo E, Rodrigues M, Yao Y, Yebra M, Vega-García C, Boer MM. Convergence in critical fuel moisture and fire weather thresholds associated with fire activity in the pyroregions of Mediterranean Europe. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 806:151462. [PMID: 34742803 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Wildfires are becoming an increasing threat to many communities worldwide. There has been substantial progress towards understanding the proximal causes of increased fire activity in recent years at regional and national scales. However, subcontinental scale examinations of the commonalities and differences in the drivers of fire activity across different regions are rare in the Mediterranean zone of the European Union (EUMed). Here, we first develop a new classification of EUMed pyroregions, based on grouping different ecoregions with similar seasonal patterns of burned area. We then examine the thresholds associated with fire activity in response to different drivers related to fuel moisture, surface meteorology and atmospheric stability. We document an overarching role for variation in dead fuel moisture content (FMd), or its atmospheric proxy of vapor pressure deficit (VPD), as the major driver of fire activity. A proxy for live fuel moisture content (EVI), wind speed (WS) and the Continuous Haines Index (CH) played secondary, albeit important, roles. There were minor differences in the actual threshold values of FMd (10-12%), EVI (0.29-0.36) and CH (4.9-5.5) associated with the onset of fire activity across pyroregions with peak fire seasons in summer and fall, despite very marked differences in mean annual burned area and fire size range. The average size of fire events increased with the number of drivers exceeding critical thresholds and reaching increasingly extreme values of a driver led to disproportionate increases in the likelihood of a fire becoming a large fire. For instance, the percentage of fires >500 ha increased from 2% to 25% as FMd changed from the wettest to the driest quantile. Our study is among the first to jointly address the roles of fuel moisture, surface meteorology and atmospheric stability on fire activity in EUMed and provides novel insights on the interactions across fire activity triggers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Víctor Resco de Dios
- School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China; Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC-AGROTECNIO-CERCA Center, Lleida, Spain.
| | | | | | - Juan Carlos Peña
- Meteorological Service of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain; Fluvalps-PaleoRisk Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, Spain
| | - Edurne Martínez Del Castillo
- Joint Research Unit CTFC-AGROTECNIO-CERCA Center, Lleida, Spain; Department of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55099 Mainz, Germany
| | - Marcos Rodrigues
- Department of Geography and Land Management, University of Zaragoza, GEOFOREST Group, Spain
| | - Yinan Yao
- School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China.
| | - Marta Yebra
- Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; School of Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Cristina Vega-García
- Department of Agricultural and Forest Engineering, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC-AGROTECNIO-CERCA Center, Lleida, Spain
| | - Matthias M Boer
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, NSW, Australia
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Wei W, Zhang H, Zhou J, Zhou L, Xie B, Li C. Drought monitoring in arid and semi-arid region based on multi-satellite datasets in northwest, China. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2021; 28:51556-51574. [PMID: 33987730 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-14122-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Drought is a complex natural disaster affected by multiple climate factors and underlying surface. In recent years, drought monitoring indices of remote sensing have been widely applied to monitor drought in a certain region or global. However, some remote sensing drought monitoring indices do not consider the drought-causing factors enough to reflect the comprehensive drought situation of a region fully. In this paper, a new remote sensing drought monitoring index, called Remote Sensing Drought Evaluation Index (RSDEI), was constructed by combining Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), Temperature Condition Index (TCI), Precipitation Condition Index (PCI), and Soil Moisture Condition Index (SMCI) using the spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) method. The reasonableness of RSDEI was test and verified using Net Primary Productivity (NPP), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and unit area crop yield. The RSDEI was also applied to the drought condition monitoring of the northwest arid and semi-arid region from 2001 to 2019.The result demonstrated that the results showed that the RSDEI had a high correlation coefficient with SPEI-12 (R=0.85, p<0.01). It is concluded that the correlation coefficient between RSDEI and NPP is 0.74 at 95% confidence level, which indicates that RSDEI and NPP have a strong correlation. Then, the correlation between RSDEI and crop yield per unit area is 0.89. The results of RSDEI showed that the drought in northwest China started in May and lasted in September from 2001 to 2019. The lowest value of RSDEI appeared in May, which inflected the significant difference of drought level in different month in northwest China. The result of CV (coefficient of variation) showed that the drought variation in the study area had a stable low fluctuation condition as a whole, in the northwest and northeast of study area, which indicated that the changes of drought were different in the past 19 years. The Hurst exponent analysis showed that the area with the positive evolution of Hurst index (0.5<H<1) is 1,845,046.669 km2,which accounts for 75.9% of the total area, while the area with reverse evolution characteristics (H<0.5) accounts for 24.1% of the total area. The result obtained above reflected that the drought changes in most regions are better than that in the past 19 years. The trend gradually changes from drought to humid.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Wei
- College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, 967Anning East Road, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu Province, China
| | - Haoyan Zhang
- College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, 967Anning East Road, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu Province, China.
| | - Junju Zhou
- College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, 967Anning East Road, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu Province, China
| | - Liang Zhou
- Faculty of Geomatics, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, 730070, China
- Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Binbin Xie
- School of Urban Economics and Tourism Culture, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, China
| | - Chuanhua Li
- College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, 967Anning East Road, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu Province, China
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6
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Monitoring Meteorological Drought in Southern China Using Remote Sensing Data. REMOTE SENSING 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/rs13193858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Severe meteorological drought is generally considered to lead to crop damage and loss. In this study, we created a new standard value by averaging the values distributed in the middle 30–70% instead of the traditional mean value, and we proposed a new index calculation method named Normalized Indices (NI) for meteorological drought monitoring after normalized processing. The TRMM-derived precipitation data, GLDAS-derived soil moisture data, and MODIS-derived vegetation condition data from 2003 to 2019 were used, and we compared the NI with commonly used Condition Indices (CI) and Anomalies Percentage (AP). Taking the mid-to-lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLRYR) as an example, the drought monitoring results for paddy rice and winter wheat showed that (1) NI can monitor well the relative changes in real precipitation/soil moisture/vegetation conditions in both arid and humid regions, while meteorological drought was overestimated with CI and AP, and (2) due to the monitoring results of NI, the well-known drought event that occurred in the MLRYR from August to October 2019 had a much less severe impact on vegetation than expected. In contrast, precipitation deficiency induced an increase in sunshine and adequate heat resources, which improved crop growth in 78.8% of the area. This study discusses some restrictions of CI and AP and suggests that the new NI index calculation provides better meteorological drought monitoring in the MLRYR, thus offering a new approach for future drought monitoring studies.
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Mohan M, Rue HA, Bajaj S, Galgamuwa GAP, Adrah E, Aghai MM, Broadbent EN, Khadamkar O, Sasmito SD, Roise J, Doaemo W, Cardil A. Afforestation, reforestation and new challenges from COVID-19: Thirty-three recommendations to support civil society organizations (CSOs). JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2021; 287:112277. [PMID: 33756214 PMCID: PMC8809530 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2020] [Revised: 01/22/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Afforestation/reforestation (A/R) programs spearheaded by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play a significant role in reaching global climate policy targets and helping low-income nations meet the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these organizations face unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, these challenges affect their ability to address issues associated with deforestation and forest degradation in a timely manner. We discuss the influence COVID-19 can have on previous, present and future A/R initiatives, in particular, the ones led by International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs). We provide thirty-three recommendations for exploring underlying deforestation patterns and optimizing forest policy reforms to support forest cover expansion during the pandemic. The recommendations are classified into four groups - i) curbing deforestation and improving A/R, ii) protecting the environment and mitigating climate change, iii) enhancing socio-economic conditions, and iv) amending policy and law enforcement practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Midhun Mohan
- Department of Geography, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94709, USA; United Nations Volunteering Program, Morobe Development Foundation, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea.
| | - Hayden A Rue
- United Nations Volunteering Program, Morobe Development Foundation, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea; Grow Non-profit, Kathmandu, Nepal.
| | - Shaurya Bajaj
- United Nations Volunteering Program, Morobe Development Foundation, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea.
| | - G A Pabodha Galgamuwa
- United Nations Volunteering Program, Morobe Development Foundation, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea; The Nature Conservancy, Maryland/DC Chapter, Cumberland, MD, 21502, USA.
| | - Esmaeel Adrah
- United Nations Volunteering Program, Morobe Development Foundation, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea.
| | | | - Eben North Broadbent
- Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab, School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
| | - Omkar Khadamkar
- United Nations Volunteering Program, Morobe Development Foundation, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea.
| | - Sigit D Sasmito
- NUS Environmental Research Institute (NERI), National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, 19 Singapore, 119077, Singapore; Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 1 Arts Link, Singapore, 117570, Singapore.
| | - Joseph Roise
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, 2820 Faucette Dr., Campus Box 8001, 27695, Raleigh, NC, United States.
| | - Willie Doaemo
- United Nations Volunteering Program, Morobe Development Foundation, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea; Morobe Development Foundation, Doyle Street, Trish Avenue-Eriku, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea; Department of Civil Engineering, Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Lae, 00411, Papua New Guinea.
| | - Adrian Cardil
- Tecnosylva, Parque Tecnológico de León, 24009, León, Spain; Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys, Km 2, 25280, Solsona, Lleida, Spain; School of Agrifood and Forestry Science and Engineering, University of Lleida, Av. de l'Alcalde Rovira Roure, 191, 25198, Solsona, Lleida, Spain.
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8
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Cardil A, Rodrigues M, Ramirez J, de-Miguel S, Silva CA, Mariani M, Ascoli D. Coupled effects of climate teleconnections on drought, Santa Ana winds and wildfires in southern California. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 765:142788. [PMID: 33109375 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Revised: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/01/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Projections of future climate change impacts suggest an increase of wildfire activity in Mediterranean ecosystems, such as southern California. This region is a wildfire hotspot and fire managers are under increasingly high pressures to minimize socio-economic impacts. In this context, predictions of high-risk fire seasons are essential to achieve adequate preventive planning. Regional-scale weather patterns and climatic teleconnections play a key role in modulating fire-conducive conditions across the globe, yet an analysis of the coupled effects of these systems onto the spread of large wildfires is lacking for the region. We analyzed seven decades (1953-2018) of documentary wildfire records from southern California to assess the linkages between weather patterns and large-scale climate modes using various statistical techniques, including Redundancy Analysis, Superposed Epoch Analysis and Wavelet Coherence. We found that high area burned is significantly associated with the occurrence of adverse weather patterns, such as severe droughts and Santa Ana winds. Further, we document how these fire-promoting events are mediated by climate teleconnections, particularly by the coupled effects of El Niño Southern Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrián Cardil
- Technosylva Inc, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC - AGROTECNIO, Solsona, Spain.
| | - Marcos Rodrigues
- Department of Agricultural and Forest Engineering, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain; Institute University of Research in Sciences Environmental (IUCA), University of Zaragoza, Spain
| | | | - Sergio de-Miguel
- Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC - AGROTECNIO, Solsona, Spain
| | - Carlos A Silva
- School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Michela Mariani
- School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
| | - Davide Ascoli
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Turin, Largo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy
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Rodrigues M, Gelabert PJ, Ameztegui A, Coll L, Vega-García C. Has COVID-19 halted winter-spring wildfires in the Mediterranean? Insights for wildfire science under a pandemic context. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 765:142793. [PMID: 33092845 PMCID: PMC7543762 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142793] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2020] [Revised: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 09/30/2020] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Wildfires in the Mediterranean are strongly tied to human activities. Given their particular link with humans, which act as both initiators and suppressors, wildfire hazard is highly sensitive to socioeconomic changes and patterns. Many researchers have prompted the perils of sustaining the current management policy, the so-called 'total fire exclusion'. This policy, coupled to increasingly fire-prone weather conditions, may lead to more hazardous fires in the mid-long run. Under this framework, the irruption of the COVID-19 pandemic adds to the ongoing situation. Facing the lack of an effective treatment, the only alternative was the implementation of strict lockdown strategies. The virtual halt of the system undoubtedly affected economic and social behavior, triggering cascading effects such as the drop in winter-spring wildfire activity. In this work, we discuss the main impacts, challenges and consequences that wildfire science may experience due to the pandemic situation, and identify potential opportunities for wildfire management. We investigate the recent evolution of burned area (retrieved from the MCD64A1 v006 MODIS product) in the EU Mediterranean region (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece) to ascertain to what extent the 2020 winter-spring season was impacted by the public health response to COVID-19 (curfews and lockdowns). We accounted for weather conditions (characterized using the 6-month Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index; SPEI6) to disregard possible weather effects mediating fire activity. Our results suggest that, under similar drought-related circumstances (SPEI6 ≈ -0.7), the expected burned area in 2020 during the lockdown period in the EU (March-May) would lay somewhere within the range of 38,800 ha ± 18,379 ha. Instead, the affected area stands one order of magnitude below average (3325 ha). This stresses the need of considering the social dimension in the analysis of current and future wildfire impacts in the Mediterranean region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcos Rodrigues
- Department of Agricultural and Forest Engineering, University of Lleida, Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC-Agrotecnio, Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys, km 2, 25280 Solsona, Lleida, Spain.
| | - Pere J Gelabert
- Department of Agricultural and Forest Engineering, University of Lleida, Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC-Agrotecnio, Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys, km 2, 25280 Solsona, Lleida, Spain
| | - Aitor Ameztegui
- Department of Agricultural and Forest Engineering, University of Lleida, Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC-Agrotecnio, Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys, km 2, 25280 Solsona, Lleida, Spain
| | - Lluis Coll
- Department of Agricultural and Forest Engineering, University of Lleida, Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC-Agrotecnio, Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys, km 2, 25280 Solsona, Lleida, Spain
| | - Cristina Vega-García
- Department of Agricultural and Forest Engineering, University of Lleida, Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain; Joint Research Unit CTFC-Agrotecnio, Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys, km 2, 25280 Solsona, Lleida, Spain
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