Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters

Extreme Wildfire Events and Disasters: Root Causes and New Management Strategies highlights the urgent need for new methods to prepare and mitigate the effects of these events. Using a multidisciplinary, socio-ecological approach, the book discusses the roots of the problem, presenting a new, innovative approach to wildfire mitigation based on the operational concept of Fire Smart Territory (FST). Under the guidance of its expert editors, the book highlights new ways to prevent and respond to extreme wildfire events and disasters through sustainable development, thus revealing better management methods and increasing protection of both the natural environment and the vulnerable communities within it.

• Reveals the complexity of extreme wildfire events and disasters in an accessible, comprehensive and multidisciplinary way
• Reviews the ground-breaking concept of Fire Smart Territory (FST) which offers an opportunity to reduce wildfire occurrence and severity through measures that promote sustainable development
• Proposes a new perspective on disaster risk reduction to help researchers, planners and professionals successfully adapt their methods for mitigating current and future issues

Wildfire ecologists, Natural resource managers, Environmentalists, Land managers, General ecologists, Agronomists and Foresters, Forestry Service professionals, Researchers in industry and academia

Part 1: Extreme wildfire events and disasters: examples and global trends
1. Extreme wildfire events and disaster as a social ecological construction
2. Extreme wildfires and disasters around the world: lessons to be learned

Part 2: Extreme wildfire events and disasters: The roots of the problem
3. The relation of weather conditions and climate change effects with extreme wildfires
4. The relation of landscape characteristics, human settlements, spatial planning, and fuel management with extreme wildfires
5. Social dimensions: causes and biases
6. Historical Ecology of extreme wildfire as disaster
7. Firefighting approaches and extreme wildfires

Part 3. Towards a new approach to cope with extreme wildfire events and disasters
8. The suppression model fragilities: the “firefighting trap”
9. Mitigation and preparedness as measures to cope with extreme wildfires and disasters
10. Recovery

Part 4. How to cope with the problem of extreme wildfires and disasters
11. Wildfire policies contribution to aggravate extreme wildfires and disaster occurrence
12. Fire Smart Territory as an innovative approach to wildfire risk reduction
13. How to create a change in wildfire management policies 
14. What we can do differently about the wildfire problem: an overview