Wildfire cause analysis: four case-studies in southern Italy
R Lovreglio (1) , V Leone (1), P Giaquinto (1), A Notarnicola (2)
iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages 8-15 (2010)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0521-003
Published: Jan 22, 2010 - Copyright © 2010 SISEF
Research Articles
Abstract
Forest fires in Italy are mainly caused by humans, and directly depend on social behavior, whether voluntary (arson) or involuntary (negligence). Despite the progress in knowledge made with studying the physical facets of the phenomenon, causes and motives of human-related fire remain mostly unknown. This paper proposes the implementation of the Delphi method (an interactive expert-questionnaire process) in order to assess why fires are ignited. In four study cases, within a high fire incidence area (southern Italy), the Delphi technique identified as major cause of negligence the use of fire in agriculture and, as major causes of voluntary fires, motives related to seasonal labor. The main results in terms of frequency are: (i) for involuntary events (negligence), experts unanimously identified the relevant importance of negligent use of agricultural fires, particularly stubble burning (13.99% of responses). For (ii) voluntary fires (arson), results highlight the relative importance of fires ignited by seasonal workers as an instrument to force or maintain employment (8.41% of responses).
Keywords
Delphi method, Fire causes, Agricultural fires, Ignition motives, Arson fires, Negligent fires, Panel of fire experts
Authors’ Info
Authors’ address
V Leone
P Giaquinto
Department of Crop Systems, Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Basilicata, v.le dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, I-85100 Potenza (Italy)
Department of Psychology, University of Bari, p.zza Umberto I 1, I-70122 Bari (Italy)
Corresponding author
Paper Info
Citation
Lovreglio R, Leone V, Giaquinto P, Notarnicola A (2010). Wildfire cause analysis: four case-studies in southern Italy. iForest 3: 8-15. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0521-003
Academic Editor
Agostino Ferrara
Paper history
Received: Aug 29, 2009
Accepted: Oct 28, 2009
First online: Jan 22, 2010
Publication Date: Jan 22, 2010
Publication Time: 2.87 months
Copyright Information
© SISEF - The Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology 2010
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Web Metrics
Breakdown by View Type
Article Usage
Total Article Views: 48024
(from publication date up to now)
Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 39040
Abstract Page Views: 2141
PDF Downloads: 5793
Citation/Reference Downloads: 161
XML Downloads: 889
Web Metrics
Days since publication: 5436
Overall contacts: 48024
Avg. contacts per week: 61.84
Citation Metrics
Article Citations
Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Nov 2020)
Total number of cites (since 2010): 26
Average cites per year: 2.36
Publication Metrics
by Dimensions ©
Articles citing this article
List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.
References
Using the Delphi process to identify significant recreation research-based innovations. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 11 (1): 25-36.
Gscholar
Estudio Sociòlogico sobre la Perceptión de la Poblacion Española hacia los Incendio Forestales. Associatión para la Promocciòn de Actividades Socioculturales
Gscholar
Effective use of the Delphi process. In: “Discovering new knowledge about trees and forests” (Leary RE ed). USDA, Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station, Gen. Techn. Rep. NC-135.
Gscholar
Incendi dolosi? In: “Foreste ricerca cultura. Scritti in onore di Orazio Ciancio” (Corona et al. eds). Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali, Florence, Italy, pp. 43-49.
Gscholar
Aspects sociaux, economiques et culturels des incendies de foréts en Italie. In: Proceeding of the Seminar on “Forest Fire Prevention, Land Use and People”. ECE/FAO/O1T, Athens (Greece) April 1987, pp. 45-59.
Gscholar
Le azioni politiche per la difesa del bosco dagli incendi. In: Atti del III Congresso di Selvicoltura per la conservazione e il miglioramento dei boschi, pp. 345-354.
Gscholar
Guidelines for using the Delphi technique to develop habitat suitability index curves. Biological report 82 (10.134), Fish and wildlife service national ecology center, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Gscholar
Wildfire motivation survey through the Delphi method. In: “Actas de la IV Conferencia Internacional sobre Incendios Forestales”, Sevilla (España) 13-18 May 2007.
Gscholar
State of the art of forest fire causes in Spain. In: Proceedings of the II International Conference on “Prevention strategies of fires in Southern Europe”. Centre Tecnologic Forestal de Cataluña, Barcelona (Spain) 9-11 may 2005, pp. 325-331.
Gscholar
Estudio sobre la causalidad de los incendios forestales en la Comunidad Autonoma de las Islas Baleares.Conselleria d’Agricultura I Pesca. Govern Balear, Impresrapit.
Gscholar
FAO meeting on public policies affecting forest fires. FAO Forestry Paper 138, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.
Gscholar
Vandalistic forest fire setting. In: Proceedings of the symposium “Vandalism and outdoor recreation” (Alfano SS, Magill AW eds). USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-17.
Gscholar
Motivaciones de los incendios forestales intencionados. ICONA Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Madrid, Spain.
Gscholar
Parco nazionale del Gargano. Piano di previsione e prevenzione contro gli incendi boschivi. (Unpublished internal report)
Gscholar
Human fire causes: a challenge for modelling. In: “Innovative concepts and methods in fire danger estimation” (Chuvieco E, Martin P, Justice C eds). Proceedings of the “4th International Workshop on remote sensing and GIS applications to forest fire management”. Ghent (Belgium) June 2003, pp. 149-170.
Gscholar
Arson and forest fire industry: the state of the art in Italy. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference on “Forest fire research”. Coimbra (Portugal) 19-23 November 1990, pp. 13.1-13.9.
Gscholar
Incendi boschivi e marginalità economica: il caso della Puglia. Cellulosa e Carta 7/8: 41-57.
Gscholar
Sociological aspects in the phenomenology of forest fires. In: “The Forest and Man” (Ciancio O ed). Accad. Ital. Sc. Forest., Florence, Italy, pp. 305-324.
Gscholar
Forest fires in Italy in 1995 and 1996. International forest fire news 17: 5-9.
Gscholar
Hypothesis as to the causes of forest fires in Puglia. In: Proceedings of the FAO/ECE/ILO “Seminar on methods and equipments for the prevention of forest fires”. Valencia (Spain) Sept 3 - Oct 10 1986. ICONA, Madrid, Spain, pp. 190-198.
Gscholar
Forest fires and anthropic influences: a study case (Gargano National Park, Italy). In: “Forest fire research & wildland fire safety” (Viegas DX ed). Millipress, Rotterdam, The Netherland, pp. 11-28.
Gscholar
The human factor in fire danger assessment. In: “Wildland fire danger estimation and mapping. The role of remote sensing data” (Chuvieco Salinero E ed). Series in Remote Sensing vol. 4, World Scientific Publishing Co., New Jersey, USA, pp. 143-194.
Gscholar
Diseño y planificación de acciones de comunicación para la prevención de incendios forestales. FAB Consultores, S. A., Madrid, Spain.
Gscholar
Indagine conoscitiva incendi boschivi. Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali, Corpo Forestale Dello Stato, Stampa New Graphic snc, Roma, Italy.
Gscholar
The Delphi method: application to elk habitat quality. USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Research Paper INT-353. Ogden, Utah, USA.
Gscholar
Incendios forestales y su relación con el medio rural. Revista de Estudios Agrosociales. 136:195-224.
Gscholar
La defensa contra incendios forestales. Fundamentos y experiencias. McGraw-Hill/Interamericana de España S.A.U., Madrid, pp. 2242.
Gscholar
Detection and control of forest fires for the protection of the human environment. Project 0206-74-003, Publ. M/LO788/ E/1.78/1/70, FAO, Rome, Italy.
Gscholar
The Delphi technique: a potential methodology for evaluating recreational fisheries. NOAA technical memorandum NMFS-SEFC-19, U.S. Dept. of commerce, National oceanic and atmospheric administration, National marine fisheries service, Washington, DC, USA.
Gscholar