IPA Adriatic Holistic Forest Fire Protection Project: the year after

Abstract

The regions around Adriatic Sea have high risk of wildfires, especially during summer due to very warm climate with low level of humidity, densely spaced Mediterranean vegetation, particularly conifer forests and lot of tourists. During fire season that is usually between July 1 and October 31, there are lot of wildfires in this region. Therefore, the biggest Croatian county Split-Dalmatia County has initiated in 2007 preparation of strategic project target to Adriatic IPA funds, based on Split-Dalmatia County holistic approach to forest fires protection and prevention. The HOLISTIC Project with full name Adriatic Holistic Forest Fire Protection has been finally accepted in 2013 as Adriatic IPA project and ended in December 2016. HOLISTIC project was focuses on the prevention and damages mitigation of the natural risks, with special focus on wildfire and earthquake risks, aiming at improvement, promotion and strengthening of institutional capabilities in implementing policies and actions to reducing the causes and damages in regions facing the Adriatic Sea. HOLISTIC project was not focused on research and development of new technologies in wildfire prevention, protection and fighting, but rather toward the application of existing technologies in fire fighters everyday tasks. Projects outputs, results and particularly pilot projects, are the main topic of this paper, including the analysis of project influences on fire fighters practice, one year after the project ending. Note: Authors from FESB were, during HOLISTIC Project realisation, Key Experts for Work Packages connected with implementation of Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) in wildfire protection and fighting for various Dalmatian Counties.