Melhorar a investigação das causas das ignições de incêndios rurais para informar soluções de gestão eficazes

The overarching objective of the project is to co-design, co-implement, and co-validate methodologies, procedures, and tools to enhance the investigation of wildfire ignition causes, and to better understand the range of psychosocial and economic motives behind human ignitions to reduce wildfire outbreaks in a sustained way. The co-created knowledge with entities belonging to the Integrated System of Management of Rural Fires will be used to produce recommendations at different levels of managerial investigation responsibility and design tools to improve the system, facilitate the product's implementation, and the integration of project proposals with existing initiatives. To achieve this objective, the project will undertake technical, and applied scientific activities using a systems approach, actionable science and a translational approach supported and validated in the 5 Living Labs. The overall mission of the IGNIT project will be realized through the following specific objectives (SO): SO1 - Propose improvements in the investigation process of wildfire ignition causes. This requires the identification of the strengths and weaknesses in the current investigation process, the governance model, and the inter-operationality of the different entities directly or indirectly involved in the process (Task 1). SO2 – Develop training courses for investigators and attorneys, judges, and magistrates. These courses intend to integrate the most updated scientific knowledge and available technologies (e.g. GIS, remote sensing) to enhance the investigation process and support better decisions at the courts (Task 1). SO3 - Understand the quality of the wildfire causes dataset using artificial intelligence, and anthropological, social, and spatial approaches and make proposals to improve the accuracy of the wildfire causes dataset to better support wildfire prevention (Task 2). SO3 – Understand the motivations and attitudes of fire users towards legislation, authorization platform, fire weather information, sensitization campaigns, etc. In addition, it will identify the relevant variables (e.g. lack of knowledge, fuel load, weather conditions) that explain why a fire escapes the control of the burner (Task 3). SO4 – Understand the degree to which different institutional and structural factors resulting from National and European policies (e.g. PAC, forestry, spatial planning) have been impacting land management and rural people’s lives and favor wildfire ignitions (Task 3). SO5 – Enhance the effectiveness of risk communication capitalized on the knowledge produced in task 3. A program of risk communication to engage communities will be produced. In addition, metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of risk communication will be presented and validated in the Living Labs (Task 4). SO6 – Develop an “advanced technological tool” to support investigation of the causes which will be tested and validated in the Living Labs. A training course and an easy user manual to support the utilization of the tool will be produced (Task 5). SO7 - Disseminate and communicate IGNIT results to guarantee the use of the tools proposed beyond the project lifetime and their national and even international impacts (Task 7). SO8 – Ensure the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse (FAIR) of the project data and outputs, and an excellent collaboration between all the project members (Tasks 6 & 8).