Spatial and temporal conditions for EWE at the European scale

This report aims to identify pre-fire landscape composition, dynamics and configuration associated with the occurrence of Extreme Wildfire Events (EWE) in Europe in 2000-2022. A set of 137 EWE were compiled into a database, using literature revision and statistical analyses. Corine Land Cover (CLC) data was used to analyze landscape composition, configuration and dynamics of selected EWE and corresponding unburned buffers, divided into distinct EWE categories: outliers in fire size at European scale (≥ 7400 ha), fires with reported extreme behavior and operationality (< 7400 ha), and historical anomalies in fire size/impacts at the national scale (< 7400 ha). There is an increasing temporal trend in EWE in Europe in 2000-2022. Pre-fire landscape characteristics showed consistent patterns associated with EWE occurrence such as: lower agricultural land area (for most countries), higher scrubland area (for southern countries), and higher peatland area (for northern countries). Unburned perimeters presented higher land cover diversity for all countries and EWE selected, and larger patches (on average) of agricultural lands for most EWE, in comparison to burned perimeters. Wildland-urban interface was higher in burned perimeters than in surrounding unburned buffers in southern countries, while absent in northern countries. Future landscape composition in 2018-2102 show an increasing area occupied by scrub/herbaceous vegetation for the Mediterranean region, representing an increasing fire risk. This report provides information to promote EWE resistant/resilient landscapes and improve modelling projections and decision support systems.

Key words: extreme wildfire events (EWE), landscape dynamics, landscape composition and configuration, LULC