Portugal is one of the countries most affected by forest fires in southern Europe. The demographic and social changes that have occurred in rural areas have driven land neglect in recent years, which, in turn, influences forest management and wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas that are related to fires. For the WUI mapping, we considered the methodology developed by (Lampin-Maillet et al., 2009, 2010). Vegetation data were collected from the 2018 Land Use and Land Cover (COS) Charter, while housing data, related to buildings, were provided by the Baião Council. The method used to characterize and map the WUI was based on 3 steps. The first was the characterisation of the dwellings, in the second we characterised and mapped the vegetation structure the third was to combine the two previous parameters, and the cartographic information was manipulated and analysed using GIS software, ArcGis 10.7.1. The WUIs represent 26.7% of the territory. Around 4,945 houses are in the WUIs. The main different types of WUIs are, 21% to isolated housing & dense vegetation, 12.4% to scattered housing & sparse vegetation, and 52.4% to scattered housing & dense vegetation. About the distribution of land use types within the WUI areas. The predominant vegetation corresponds to the forest class, registering approximately 80%, chiefly in the scattered and isolated WUI. The main classes of use for the scattered and isolated WUI are maritime pine forest, representing 991.3 ha of the diffuse WUI, followed by 907.4 ha of other broadleaf forests, 551 ha of bushes, 228.6 ha of other oak forests and 202 ha of eucalyptus forests. We can understand the dynamics established in the municipality and its relationship with the distribution of housing and vegetation types. The WUIs contribute to the occurrences of fires, and in Baião 26.7% of its territory is occupied by WUIs.

dos Santos, Sarah,Bento-Gonçalves, António, Vieira, António
University of Minho

 
ID Abstract: 974