Building Forest Fires Resilience, the Incorporation of Local Knowledge into Disaster Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

The severity of the socio-economic, political, and ecological damage caused by forest fires each year requires action plans for disaster risk reduction (DRR). Despite efforts made to incorporate participatory mechanisms into risk governance, much of the research on disaster risk reduction in academia is conducted under the deficit model. This paper proposes public engagement as a mechanism for incorporating community-based knowledge, experiences, and practices into DRR plans. Based on the case study of forest fires in Galicia (Spain), developed within the MITIGACT project, we explore, through the analysis of in-depth interviews, how forest fires are defined, how disaster management plans are evaluated and what concrete proposals are considered. The results highlight the need to strengthen social governance at the local level and to balance the resources dedicated to the three phases of prevention, extinction, and recovery, moving from a linear to a circular model.

Applicability of an Ionising Radiation Measuring System for Real-Time Effective-Dose-Optimised Route Finding Solution during Nuclear Accidents

“…The need to build up national search and rescue technical capabilities in the field of emergency management is supported by several recently published scientific studies, in which the authors examine the disaster management aspects of various emergency situations. Such analyses include, for example, the case of the protection against largescale forest fires [6], the handling of COVID-19 pandemic events [7], or the preparation for dealing with nuclear emergency situations [8,9]. Of course, the technical intervention capabilities must also be available in case of additional sources of disaster, such as floods, extreme weather conditions, earthquakes, chemical accidents, radiological incidents, and damage to vital critical infrastructure [10].…”