Researchers from the Ponferrada campus participate in a project to develop safer and more fire-resistant landscapes

Given the increase in high-intensity forest fires caused by climate change and changes in land use, it is essential to develop innovative strategies to prevent and mitigate their impacts on human lives and the environment. In this context, the project ‘Integrated adaptive management in strategic areas to reduce vulnerability to forest fires‘ (ZEGI_ADAPT), in which researchers from the Dracones research group of the Ponferrada campus of the University of León participate, was born.

This innovative project, as explained by Fernando Castedo Dorado, one of the Dracones researchers, aims to develop “fire-smart territories, promoting less vulnerable and more resilient landscapes against fires”. To this end, he explains, they will work on the evaluation, design and validation of Strategic Adaptive Management Areas (ZEGIAs), key areas to minimize the impact of fire at the landscape scale.

ZEGI_ADAPT is a project funded within the 2023 national call for Knowledge Generation Projects and has the collaboration of a consortium of three subprojects along a north-south geographical gradient in Spain to achieve the “integral” character of the project.

The three subprojects are led by the University of León (Dracones research group), the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC, Madrid) and the University of Córdoba.

The subproject led by the Dracones research group (PID2023-146599OR-C52) focuses on modeling forest fuels and evaluating the effects of different treatments in the ZEGIAs, a key task to optimize fire prevention.

More information at: https://www.unileon.es/noticias/investigadores-del-campus-de-ponferrada-participan-en-un-proyecto-para-desarrollar