Les Criteres D’Evaluation des Risques D’Incendies de Forets

Summary

Through the traditional use of fire as a means of clearing land and in hunting, it became possible to identify, subjectively, the factors involved in the development of fires in various types of vegetation cover.

The obvious waste resulting from natural fires led of course to efforts to prevent their breaking out and to limit their spread.

Fire risk indices were first developed in countries with vast thinly-populated land surfaces: the United States of America, Australia and Canada.

The factors taken into accunt in these indices are briefly reviewed, together with the combinations in which they occur.

Improvement of the indices through the use of coputers explains their application to large areas of territory.

In Europe it should be possible to determine the daily probability of ‘fire’ or ‘no fire’ through a converse process of taking into consideration a few main factors (often only two).

Findings from laboratory research and limited tests in the field provide further vital data for the use of fire in forest management.