Papers by Matilde Silvia Schirru
The Third International Conference on Fire Behavior and Risk, Aug 26, 2022
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The Third International Conference on Fire Behavior and Risk
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ICFBR 2022
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<p&amp... more <p>Wildfires represent a major threat to Mediterranean ecosystems and are responsible for relevant impacts to environmental, economic and social values. In the period 2010-2016, the cross-border Interreg Italy-France Maritime territory, which includes Sardinia, Corsica, Tuscany, Liguria and PACA Regions, had about 20,000 wildfire ignitions and a total burned area of about 122,000 ha. In the face of social and environmental conditions and risks of the Maritime Regions, strengthening and developing innovative common guidelines and systems of wildfire management, from the monitoring and forecast to suppression, can provide more effective solutions to the wildfire problem, and can help strengthen cross-border cooperation in case of days with high risk. This work is devoted to introduce the MED-Star project, and to describe his main activities and results, with a focus on the tasks and activities coordinated by the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of BioEconomy (CNR-IBE) of Sassari. MED-Star is a 3-years strategic project supported by the Interreg Italy-France Maritime Program 2014-2020, which is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). MED-Star is closely linked to 4 joint simple projects (Intermed; Med-Coopfire; Med-Foreste; Med-PSS), which mainly focus on investments in small infrastructures for wildfire risk prevention and support to wildfire suppression operations. The MED-Star project aims to share and discuss fire management policies and the most advanced strategies that can reduce the risk associated with wildfires, also through the combination of joint action plans and pilot / demonstration actions. The partnerships of MED-Star and the related 4 simple projects include the main actors competent at the administrative, technical and scientific level on the wildfire topic in the Maritime area of cooperation, and are able to meet the abovementioned challenges, contributing to 1) the reduction of wildfire risk in the five Regions involved, 2) the definition of strategic and operational solutions, 3) the implementation of operational actions and investments for wildfire prevention, monitoring, forecast and suppression, and 4) the strengthening of joint early warning and risk monitoring systems.</p>
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Advances in forest fire research, 2014
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International Conference on Innovation and Urban and Regional Planning INPUT aCAdemy 2019, 2019
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Land
In Mediterranean agropastoral areas, land abandonment is a key driver of wildfire risk as fuel lo... more In Mediterranean agropastoral areas, land abandonment is a key driver of wildfire risk as fuel load and continuity increase. To gain insights into the potential impacts of land abandonment on wildfire risk in fire-prone areas, a fire-spread modeling approach to evaluate the variations in wildfire potential induced by different spatial patterns and percentages of land abandonment was applied. The study was carried out in a 1200 km2 agropastoral area located in north-western Sardinia (Italy) mostly covered by herbaceous fuels. We compared nine land abandonment scenarios, which consisted of the control conditions (NA) and eight scenarios obtained by combining four intensity levels (10, 20, 30, 40%) and two spatial patterns of agropastoral land abandonment. The abandonment scenarios hypothesized a variation in dead fuel load and fuel depth within abandoned polygons with respect to the control conditions. For each abandonment scenario, wildfire hazard and likelihood at the landscape scal...
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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021, 2021
As innovative approaches emerge, the concept of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) is periodically... more As innovative approaches emerge, the concept of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) is periodically revised and enhanced, presenting new value nuances. Due to their intrinsic site-specific character, CES usually call for subjective, rather than objective, perspectives. Therefore, assessing CES through alternative, non-monetary approaches, is fundamental. This issue becomes even more urgent when attempting to assess and map CES within natural protected areas, and even more so when such areas are non-inhabited, as the absence of any local communities poses additional challenges. In this study, initiated within the GIREPAM (Integrated Management and Ecological Network of Marine Protected Areas) Interreg project and developed within the NEPTUNE Interreg project, the way stakeholders perceive CES supplied by the Asinara National Park in Northern Sardinia (Italy) was investigated. Interviews and questionnaires were delivered in December 2019: more than 600 observations related to CES were mapped and recorded through a participatory GIS in order to investigate whether the different perception of CES supplied by a given natural protected area varies depending on the community. Differences were recorded among three local communities. Results show that significant differences exist in the choice of places, rather than in the perceived values of a natural protected area, and that such differences depend on the local community engaged in recognizing the various types of cultural values.
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The Asinara, is the second most big island of Sardinia (5,290 hectares) after S. Antiochus, and i... more The Asinara, is the second most big island of Sardinia (5,290 hectares) after S. Antiochus, and it is located at the north west of the island mother. It shows an hilly landform with only a few flat areas located in the central region and the south east. The landscape of Asinara retains widespread evidences of past agro-forestry farmland use, as discovered among records of the Concluded Land Registry (Cessato Catasto) of Sassari (1860), that included only three categories of land-use: arable, pasture and woodland. The Island's history is peculiar because since 1855, after the expulsion of farmers and shepherds (Sardinian origins) and of fishermen (Ligurian and Campanian origins) deported in the peninsula of Stintino, it was utilized by the Italian State as Penal Colony first, and as Maximum Security Prison after. Only after 1999 the Island became National Park with pertaining environmental protection rules.The research, provides a multitemporal analysis of land-use changes conduc...
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ABSTRACT Today the profitability of the farmers depends on subsidies, the ongoing discussion on t... more ABSTRACT Today the profitability of the farmers depends on subsidies, the ongoing discussion on the future of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has included an emphasis on the need to "protect, maintain and improve agricultural habitats and biodiversity". In recent decades there has been considerable loss of biodiversity in Europe. Changes in land cover due to anthropogenic factors but also, for example, geomorphological processes and climate events, provide a contribute to changes. The study areas are located on the Asinara island (NW of the homonymous gulf in northern of Sardinia - Italy), the island landscape retains widespread evidences of the past agro-forestry. With a diachronic analysis approach were examined satellite imagery, between 1977 and 2000, for an initial assessment of changes in land use. Have been identified 3 study areas, used during the presence of the penal colony with different purposes. The land use changes on the Asinara island, is closely related to functions changes that agriculture had during the prison activities, since the establishment of the agricultural penal colony (1887) to the begin of maximum security prison (anti-terrorism laws and anti-Mafia. 1980) period. The following failure of a management model, lacking in sustainable livestock control, has led to the displacement of animals within the natural areas that provide them biomass (valleys, tree regeneration areas, suburban areas and wetlands). In view of the new common agricultural policy lines, inside and neighboring of the protected areas, can be identified specific intervention tools in order to aid the agriculture implementation with less environmental impact strongly anchored to the territorial context. We need to ensure consistency with the objectives of protected areas environmental management. However these measures must be a real support and reference for the farmers. In these contexts, the use of tools and methodologies such as the analysis of land use changes, along with other technologies, can be a useful support to the governance of the protected areas that maintain inside their territories agricultural zones.
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This work analyzes cork oak toponyms in Sardinia aiming at (i) resuming the ecological gradient o... more This work analyzes cork oak toponyms in Sardinia aiming at (i) resuming the ecological gradient of environmental factors behind vernacular names of place, (ii) testing a methodology to evaluate if conservative meaning of plant names respects the potential vegetation of Cork Oak as dominant forest species and (iii) actual land use.
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iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, 2018
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Forest ecosystems provide multiple essential ecosystem services (ES) for ecological and human wel... more Forest ecosystems provide multiple essential ecosystem services (ES) for ecological and human well-being. In forest management, understanding of the services and functions distribution, interactions and assessing the economic value of forest ES represent an important future challenge to balancing tradeoffs among them. In this study we consider three ES related to cork oak forest management: (i) carbon storage and sequestration, (ii) water yield, and (iii) cork production.
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ABSTRACT
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The olive grove is the major portion of Mediterranean landscape mosaic. The dominance of olive cr... more The olive grove is the major portion of Mediterranean landscape mosaic. The dominance of olive cropping on agricultural space, the plant framework and the productive structure’s longevity are just a few of the features rendering the olive tree symbol of heritage and cultural identity in the Mediterranean area. High levels of environmental value in terms of animal and vegetal biodiversity are found in low input olive agro-ecosystems, as a natural ecosystems mimic. The CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) Health Check 2009 ascribes to agriculture the multifunctional attribute and the role of landscape guardian, identifying in farms the most active actors in producing no food services such as agro-ecosystem conservation and restoration, land marketing and local productions. Trades, economic policies and land planning decisions in last decades influenced and determined the evolution of most of rural lands, naturally dynamic, to abandon practices or land degradation. The need to protect land...
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The Asinara, is the second most big island of Sardinia (5,290 hectares) after S. Antiochus, and i... more The Asinara, is the second most big island of Sardinia (5,290 hectares) after S. Antiochus, and it is located at the north west of the island mother. It shows an hilly landform with only a few flat areas located in the central region and the south east. The landscape of Asinara retains widespread evidences of past agro-forestry farmland use, as discovered among records of the Concluded Land Registry (Cessato Catasto) of Sassari (1860), that included only three categories of land-use: arable, pasture and woodland. The Island's history is peculiar because since 1855, after the expulsion of farmers and shepherds (Sardinian origins) and of fishermen (Ligurian and Campanian origins) deported in the peninsula of Stintino, it was utilized by the Italian State as Penal Colony first, and as Maximum Security Prison after. Only after 1999 the Island became National Park with pertaining environmental protection rules.The research, provides a multitemporal analysis of land-use changes conduc...
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Papers by Matilde Silvia Schirru