Is native forest an alternative to prevent wildfire in the WUI in Central Portugal?

Abstract

The expansion of the 2017 mega-fires in Portugal was observed to be locally halted by native forest patches. Here we present spatial simulation scenarios of fire behaviour to assess whether native forest cover mitigates fire spread during extreme wildfire conditions in wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas around Industrial Zones (IZs). Our results suggest that broadleaved forest cover can reduce fireline intensity and rate of spread around IZs up to 20 and 8 times, respectively, on average. Thus, our results support the need to discuss forest management in Portugal to better prevent WUI fires.