Treesearch

Applied Meteorology is an important and rapidly growing field. This chapter concludes the three-chapter series of this monograph describing how meteorology information can be used to serve society’s needs, while at the same time advancing our understanding of the basics of the science. This chapter continues along the lines of part II of this series by discussing ways that meteorology and climate information can help improve the output of the agriculture and food security sector. It also discusses how agriculture alters climate and its long-term implications. It finally pulls together...

Tree vegetation was evaluated through the establishment of 14 Permanent Monitoring Plots (PMP) in "Cerro Azul" Meambar National Park (PANACAM), located in central Honduras. The plots were distributed in four elevational ranges (900 - 1,200, 1,200 - 1,500; 1,500 - 1,800 and 1,800 - 2,080 m), where a total of 1,896 individuals belonging to 231 species, 135 genera and 69 families were recorded. No significant differences were found for richness, diversity and structure between the elevational ranges; however, there is a low similarity in species composition between ranges, where those that...

The limited availability of resources for wildfire management necessitates prioritizing forest areas for protection. For this purpose, criteria such as fire risk are used to generate thematic maps intended to support decision-making. However, prior to this, the information must be validated under a statistically robust process. Unfortunately, no such process currently exists, so it must be formulated from the most basic aspect, which is the definition of the sampling unit. This was the objective of this study, where different-sized reference sites (RSs) were tested under four sampling...

Even when they account for a large part of damages caused by forest fires on environmental and landscape services they are seldom included in the valuation of damage assessments. Some fires within natural parks have caused significantly larger impacts on these environmental and landscape services (nonmarket) than on market services. The economic valuation of forest fires impacts on environmental and landscape services requires indirect valuation techniques like the travel cost or contingent valuation methods. There are differences on welfare estimates depending on the geographic zone...

Generation of information about fire environments and forest fuel beds is essential to know the behavior of wildfires. Developing experimental models in laboratories can be costly and time-consuming. One alternative is to take advantage of the empirical knowledge of people with experience in fire management and wildfire fighting. In order to collect empirical information on the fire environment to evaluate and describe forest fuel beds in different ecosystems in Mexico, four participatory workshops were held. These workshops were held in four venues covering the North, Central, West and...

In the field of geographic information systems (GIS) there are certain tasks that are performed repetitively and are thus sometimes monotonous, where it is necessary to structure, integrate and analyze a series of georeferenced information, which, however, always carries the same sequence. Therefore, we developed a sequential model which allows automating certain processes in the definition of priority wildfire protection areas. For this, we used the Model Builder tool (ArcGis), which is based on a visual programming language that allows structuring the sequence of processes. To illustrate...

In 1996 the Forest Act (Decree 101-96) was approved, giving life to the National Forest Institute (INAB) as the autonomous and decentralized public entity responsible for forest administration outside protected areas. Together with the Forest Act, the State of Guatemala, through INAB, created the Forest Incentives Program (PNFOR) to promote the establishment of plantations and sustainable forest management. Given the experiences with PINFOR, and the demands of small holders and community groups, in 2007 the Forest Incentives Program for Smallholders (PINPEP) was created through the...

Central America, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru are projected to experience an increase over the short term in the number of recorded wildfires and area affected, accompanied by an obvious loss of housing units, infrastructure and in extreme cases human lives. Hence, there is an indisputable need for Wildfire Protection and Fire Management to be assumed responsibly and on an academic basis by professionals in forest and related sciences in Latin America, which necessitates the adoption and development of a "Latin American Strategy for Strengthening Fire...

Economic decision-making in wildfire defense and fire management programs is not easy when performed under efficiency criteria. The determination of variables to be considered and the lack of data analyzed in relation to the results achieved by the action plans adopted to reduce the impact of fires condition the adoption of strategic solutions, both in the management of the landscape against fires and in suppression operations. If, by itself, the decision on how much, where and how to invest protection budgets is complex, the choice in environments of risk and uncertainty undoubtedly...

Using the same choice experiment surveys and same specification of mixed logit models are used in California (CA) and Florida (FL) to compare homeowners willingness to pay (WTP) for two types of fuel reduction programs. Comparing the WTP of homeowners in CA and FL for private and public wildfire risk reduction show that WTP for the private actions among households who perceive low to moderate wildfire risk is quite low, and probably lower than what their cost share would be for making significant wildfire risk reductions on their property and to their residence. However, these same...