Estimation of fire risk in a Greek island for the prevention of forest fires

The comprehensive prevention of forest fires is an issue of vital importance for the protection and sustainable development of forests which constitute irreplaceable natural resource for any society. Nowadays, it is operated an integrated recording, processing and analysis of local characteristics of any given area, supported by the state-of-the-art technological capabilities, so that we may explore the fire risk possibilities across any territory. The aim of the paper is the determination of fire risk in a Greek island, which is called Thasos. Specifically, the paper explores the determination of fire risk levels across the entire study area, based on the local characteristics of the island, namely, the influence of the fuels structure, slope, aspect, as well as the influence of the road and human settlements network. The collective contribution of all these factors to the ignition and propagation of forest fires highlighted specific areas which are characterized highly sensitive. Hence, essential preventative measures must be established, especially across these critical areas. Such measures could include: the optimal (spatial) allocation of watchtowers as well as the spatial optimization of the mobile firefighting vehicles; the forest fuels treatment in the areas where are characterized of extremely high fire risk; the restriction of accessibility in the aforementioned areas when extreme meteorological conditions are predicted to happen and other similar measures that could prevent the forest fires before they take huge dimensions. Therefore, this analytic process could be quite valuable in any given area, so that the fire agency staff to be properly prepared and act immediately, when a fire incident takes place. In addition, it should be emphasized the fact that the fire agency will have the flexibility of allocating its staff at the most sensitive areas and decrease the forces in areas of relatively low fire risk.