ForestFire 2016, the international conference on forest fires and wildland urban interface (WUI) fires, will be held in Aix-en-Provence from May 25-27, 2016, and is organized by IRSTEA (France’s National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture) in collaboration with IAWF.
WUI management for wildfire mitigation has become an increasingly critical stake these last years in many regions of the world that are characterized by a Mediterranean climate, but also in areas characterized, so far, by temperate climate, as a result of both climate and land cover change. The same fire process affects wildlands and WUI, although fuel, fire behavior, fire-fighting strategies, vulnerability and values, and even micro-local fire weather conditions may radically differ. Following the first ForestFire conference in 2013, this second conference will try to sum up the scientific knowledge related to the relationships between WUI fires and wildland fires, and will favor exchanges between researchers and risk managers, security services, land owners and general decision or policy makers on this topic.
During this second edition of ForestFire, over 200 attendees are expected, traveling from all around the world. The program of the conference will include individual presentations during two parallel sessions as well as a poster session. There will also be the opportunity of special sessions such as one on fire science dissemination in which cooperation possibilities with particular institutes will be discussed to describe lessons learned and discuss development of innovative and contemporary fire prevention programs. Presenters will be invited to submit their presentations to the conference proceedings which will based on a peer-review procedure.
The field trip planned on the third day will encompass an overview of the one-year-old Velaux fire to see the consequences of that disturbance event from both an ecologist’s and a firefighter’s perspectives; a visit of the regional fire academy as well as of the Center of Risks Simulation; and finishing with a walk through the Museum of Civilizations for Europe and the Mediterranean.
For more information, visit http://forestfire.irstea.fr.
