Earth Observation of Wildland Fires in Mediterranean Ecosystems
Wildland fires are becoming one of the most critical environmental factors affecting a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. In Mediterranean ecosystems (including also South-Africa, California, parts of Chile and Australia), wildland fires are recurrent ph
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Emilio Chuvieco Editor
Earth Observation of Wildland Fires in Mediterranean Ecosystems
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Editor Prof. Dr. Emilio Chuvieco Universidad Alcala de Henares Facultad Filosofia y Letras Depto. Geografia Calle Colegios, 2 22801 Alcala de Henares Spain [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-01753-7 e-ISBN 978-3-642-01754-4 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-01754-4 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009930472 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: deblik, Berlin Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution (Exodus, 22, 6).
Fire was one of the most precious instrument that humans learned to dominate in the early stages of civilization, a source of heat and light, an instrument for cooking and warming. It was such an indispensable component of the ordinary living that we have named our most private space to stay as the place where the fire consumes (“hogar”, “fogar”, “foyer”, from the Latin name “focus”, fire). However, fire has not only be a house tool, but a powerful mean for extensive land clearing. The expansion of agricultural colonization has been commonly preceded and followed by biomass burning. As the human footprint extended, the Earth’s vegetation has been shaped by fire, which is now a critical factor to understand ecosystems functioning worldwide. The traditional uses of fire, molded by millennia of human-nature interrelationships, have recently been affected by sharp changes, both in the way humans use the land and in the climatic conditions that also impacted fires in natural cycles. New challenges in the interactions between fire and humans arise. Fire becomes not only a tool but also a risk, affecting human lives, properties and ecosystems at temporal scales where the impacts are more detrimental. The Mediterranean has been a privileged scenario of this long history of humanfire relationships. Mediterranean climates are characterized by dry and hot summers, which create fa
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