Catalonia
The Spanish pilot took place in October 2023 and was based on El Perelló fire (Catalonia) that occurred in June 2019. The fire burned across 250 hectares, mainly forestland (95%) and to a lesser extent agricultural land (5%). The fire type is associated with a wind-driven fire in mountainous terrain, driven by a NW wind in one of the driest areas of Catalonia. On the day the fire occurred, the Drought Code (DC) had shown values above 100% of drought for the last month. The influence of counterwinds caused the opening of the perimeter to the SE. The windshift from NW to W and the convection capacity, as well as the spotting behaviour, led to the opening of both flanks: the left flank spread towards the SW, where there was a forest area with difficult access for the suppression teams, whereas the right flank spread towards the NE, where there was a populated area. The suppression strategy consisted of keeping the fire as narrow as possible in the plain area outside the Tivissa-Vandellòs massif, so as to limit the projection of the fire and favour the propagation towards the agricultural fields.
The pilot aimed at i/Showcasing the current and potential use of the β2 version of the SAFERS Intelligent Services for operations related to wildfire risk management; ii/ Testing and validating SAFERS Intelligent Services in real-case scenarios through a demonstration scenario inspired by El Perelló fire in 2019; iii/ Collecting feedback for the improvement and fine-tuning of the system toward the final pilot; and iv/ Enabling networking and mutual acquaintance between SAFERS partners, Catalan research and operational organisations, and other parties invited to the pilot.
The demo in a video
The event recorded the participation of:
