PLEA Network

1 April 2016, Climate News Network, New strategy devised to tackle wildfires. High-risk areas mapped and targeted in efforts by the US and Europe to reduce the risks of catastrophic economic and health damages caused by forest fires.  Communities in both Europe and the US are preparing to fight fire not with fire, but with information. European researchers have just established a map of the regions most at riskfrom catastrophic wildfire. And in the US, where 2015 saw more fire damage than any other year on record, a new Wildland Fire Science Centre in Reno, Nevada, hopes to help federal, state and local agencies confront and better prepare for the hazards. The reasoning on both continents is the same. “In the regions we have identified as high risk, local authorities need to prioritise fire risk control and develop better forest fire risk management strategies,” says Heiko Balzter, director of the Centre for Landscape and Climate Research at the University of Leicester, UK. Read More here