PyroLife Symposium - Webinar Summaries

Compiled by Simona Dossi  1. Do you also take into account the impact related to fires due to losses for society (for example due to disruption of functioning of critical infrastructure – electricity/telecom/transport etc.) or do you evaluate the effects of measures only looking at the direct damages? Eduard Plana: Thanks for this important question Margreet. Indeed, the same holistic approach is needed to fully understand wildfire impacts: they are economic, ecological but also social. May happen direct cost in wood provision during the forest recovery period, restoring damaged infrastructures, etc., or indirect loses in decrease of tourist visitors due […]

By Simona Dossi  Identifying gaps, challenges and opportunities towards integrated risk management This was the first Europe-focused “Living with Fire” webinar; during which wildfire and flood risk in the Mediterranean were explored by discussing the gaps, challenges and opportunities towards an integrated risk management. Three presenters shared their expertise from Mediterranean risk management: Eduard Plan and Marta Giambellia are risk management professionals based in Spain and Italy respectively, and Bàrbara Ortuño is the mayor of the El Bruc municipality in Catalonia. Plana started the webinar by presenting a conceptual overview of wildfire risk management, Ortuño followed by sharing her municipality’s […]

Highlights from the PyroLife Symposium webinar on July 15, 2020 by Abbey Marcotte. On 15 July, Núria Prat-Guitart, researcher and project manager with Pau Costa Foundation, shared with us the importance of collaboration and knowledge exchange between scientists and managers in order to maximize the impact of wildfire research. She presents two arguments that are needed in order to maximize this collaboration and establish better collaboration with stakeholders: a need to better understand global wildfire activity a need to develop useful science. The first argument — understanding global wildfire activity — presents a challenge such that different types of fires […]

Highlights from the eighth PyroLife Symposium webinar on July 22, 2020 by Isabeau Ottolini and Kathleen Uyttewaal. On July 22, Míriam Arenas Conejo, a sociology researcher and professor at the Open University of Catalonia, joined us for our last PyroLife Symposium panel. She shared with us several profound social aspects to consider, both in the world of fire and in the broader events that are typically considered as “natural disasters.” Often, we talk about “society” in general terms and forget about all the complexities present in every community. As we consider social analysis in fire, Míriam encourages us to meditate […]