Selective burning of forest vegetation in Canton Ticino (southern Switzerland)

Abstract

Detailed knowledge of factors controlling fire regime is a prerequisite for efficient fire management. We analyzed the fire selectivity of given forest vegetation classes both in terms of fire frequency and fire size for the present fire regime (1982–2005) in Canton Ticino (southern Switzerland). To this end, we investigated the dataset in four categories (all fires, anthropogenic winter fires, anthropogenic summer fires, and natural summer fires) and performed 1000 random Monte Carlo simulations on frequency and size. Anthropogenic winter and summer fires have a similar selectivity, occurring mostly at low elevations in chestnut stands, broadleaved forests, and in the first 50 m from the forest edge. In winter half of the fires in chestnut stands are significantly larger than 1.0 ha and the average burnt area in some coniferous forests tends to be high. Lightning fires seem to occur more frequently in spruce stands and less often in the summer‐humid chestnut and beech stands and the 50–100 m buffer area. In beech forests, in mixed forests, and in the spruce stands affected by natural fire in summer, the fires tend to be small in size. The selectivity observed, especially the selectivity of anthropogenic fires in terms of fire frequency, seems to be also related to geographical parameters such as altitude and aspect, and to anthropogenic characteristics such as closeness to roads or buildings.

Keywords:

• Fire ignition
• fire number
• fire selectivity
• fire size
• fuel type
• permutation method

Acknowledgments

This research is part of the Fire Paradox Project. We gratefully acknowledge the research funding we received from the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Program. Our heartfelt thanks go to Giancarlo Cesti for critically revising the manuscript and to Silvia Dingwall Stucki for revising the English text.