Analysis of burnt areas and number of forest fires in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

The Iberian peninsula has suffered for many years from large scale forest fires, which in the past decades have been devastating for all components of the environment: destruction of biological systems, loss of organic matter from soils and alteration of atmospheric and climatic processes. In this study we analyse the variation in number and burnt areas in the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain), using mathematical functions. The results obtained are compared with other European Mediterranean countries such as France, Italy and Greece. More than 1.5 million fires were recorded in the Mediterranean countries between 1980 and 2011, involving a burnt area of approximately 15 million hectares, where 67% of the fires and 60% of the burnt area lay in the Iberian Peninsula. Upon using the adjustment functions, the evolution of the number of fires in the Iberian Peninsula shows a growth rate between 1980 and 2000, while a decline in fires was observed after 2001. There is a continuous decrease in burnt area throughout these years. The evolution of the number of fires in Spain and Portugal presents a behaviour that is quite similar to that in the Mediterranean countries. However, this is not true for the burnt areas, where an increase in Spain from 1980 to1985 was observed, and this decreased after 1986. Portugal on the other hand presents an increase in burnt areas from 1985 to 2003.