Synergistic effects on fire hazard from combined linear fuel breaks and mosaic fuel treatments

Abstract

Designing large-scale fuel reduction programs has increasingly become a complex planning process owing to multifaceted fire management objectives that vary in space and time. In many fire-prone systems, fuel management strategies rely on fuel break networks (FBN) and fuel treatment mosaics (FTM) to mitigate wildfire impacts. While both archetypes are being widely implemented as part of newer fire management initiative, managers must decide how to allocate investments to best achieve desired long-term outcomes. This problem creates a new spatial prioritization paradigm that has long-term implications on fire management but has yet to be explored in sufficient detail to make management recommendations. In this study, we simulated treatment scenarios in four diverse regions in Portugal where the two archetypes were simultaneously implemented under different spatial arrangements to understand how they can be combined to reduce fire hazard.

Citation

Aparicio, Bruno A.; Benali, Akli; Ager, Alan; Pereira, Jose M. C. 2025. Synergistic effects on fire hazard from combined linear fuel breaks and mosaic fuel treatments. Fire Ecology. 21: 45.