Monitoring spotting in wildfires – a study case in Trás-os-Montes,NE Portugal

摘要

Spotting can initiate new distant fires independent of the source fire. Spot fires are arnmajor problem in fire control that reduces firelines effectiveness and endangers human life andrnproperty. In the frame of the European project SALTUS, during the Summer of 1999, two teamsrncarried out a field work, in the Trás-os-Montes region, NE of Portugal, following wildfires in realrntime to monitor the conditions conducive to spotting, according to a methodology common to fivernSouth European countries. The objective was to observe the occurrence of spot fires, to collectrndata and video images, and to get insights on the firebrand initiation process in order to develop arncomprehensive model of spotting. These data allowed the characterization of the different variablesrnused to explain the spotting process under given situations. The following methodology isrnexemplified with a case study wildfire.