Fuel types and potential fire behaviour in Sardinia and Corsica islands: a pilot study

One of the goals of the EU PROTERINA-C project (Programme Italy-France Maritime 2007-2013) is to evaluate the fire danger in Mediterranean areas and characterize the vegetation parameters involved in the combustion process. Therefore, specific project activities were focused on i) identifying and describing the different fuel types mainly affected by fire occurrence in Sardinia and Corsica islands and ii) developing custom fuel models for Mediterranean vegetation. In the first part of the work, field sampling sites were randomly located on selected vegetation types historically affected by fires in Sardinia and Corsica islands. The following variables were collected: live and dead fuel load, depth of the fuel layer, plant cover. In the second part of the work, a cluster analysis algorithm was used to identify fuel types by grouping fuel variables collected in the field. A set of custom fuel models was then developed. Finally, the potential fire behaviour for every custom fuel model was calculated by Behave Plus fire behaviour prediction system using two different weather scenarios typical of summer conditions.