Assessing the association of drought indicators to impacts: the results for areas burned by wildfires in Portugal

Abstract

In the FP7 European project “DROUGHT-R&SPI - Fostering European Drought Research and Science-Policy Interfacing” CEABN works together with partners from other eight countries on monitoring and prediction tools to manage drought impacts at different scales. The wildfire extent was one of the impacts studied in relation to recent drought events in Portugal. The identification of specific periods where shortage of water is relevant to the extent of wildfires is of prime importance to counteract drought impacts. Meteorological droughts can be characterized using indices such as SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index). In this study we explored the links between area burned by wildfires and meteorological drought indicators using data series from mainland Portugal. Significant correlations were found between wildfire burned area and drought indices (SPIs 1, 3 and 6), which can be useful to understand and manage the risk of forest fires.