Methodological approach to assess the socio-economic vulnerability to wildfires in Spain

The potential impacts of fire are spatially-dependent, according to the ecosystems, people and properties at risk. This study aimed to develop a methodology for the assessment of the socio-economic vulnerability to fire using Geographic Information Systems. We have conducted the vulnerability assessment by estimating the potential losses fire might cause during the time required for the recovery of the pre-fire environmental conditions. We have considered that vegetation recovery time depends on the vegetation's structure, the reproductive strategy and the influence of constraining factors such as water availability, soil loss, fire frequency and fire intensity. Regarding the socioeconomic values at risk, three categories of impact have been assessed. The impact on properties consisting of the potential destruction of build-up structures situated in the wild land-urban interface. The impact on people, i.e.: the probability of wildfires causing victims. The third category of impact embraces losses of environmental services because of the potential interruption of the productive, ecologic and recreational function of the affected ecosystems. Conventional economic valuation methodologies (revealed or declared preference techniques) were applied. The application of the developed methodology to the case of continental Spain has resulted in several cartographic products (at a 1 km(2) resolution), thus presenting in a spatially explicit way the vulnerability of the territory to fire in different socio-economic aspects. According to the results, the average benefits derived from effective fire prevention measures because of avoided damages to properties, human life and ecosystems are 376,584 TEUR km(-2), 9.17 TEUR km(-2) and 22.29 TEUR km(-2), respectively (TEUR = 1000 EUR). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.