Gavriil Xanthopoulos

Hellenic Agricultural Organization - "DIMITRA" - Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems

This study reviews the impacts of climate change on Greek forests, analysing factors such as climate trends, forest management, biodiversity, genetics, insects, and wildfires, using data from the Scopus and Mendeley databases and official reports. By utilising our current understanding and allocating necessary efforts and resources, we actively add...

Citation: Oikonomou, D.; Vrahnakis, M.; Yiakoulaki, M.; Xanthopoulos, G.; Kazoglou, Y. Grazing as a Management Tool in Mediterranean Pastures: A Meta-Analysis Based on A Literature Review. Land 2023, 12, 1290. https:// Abstract: The present study reviews the impact of mechanical interventions, and controlled burning combined with grazing in the Med...

Fuel management for wildfire risk prevention generally lacks economic sustainability. In marginal areas of southern Europe, this limits fuel treatment programs from reaching the critical mass of required treated area to modify landscape flammability, the fire regime and its impacts. This study investigates key fuel management initiatives for wildf...

Since 2021, we have run a two-year pilot project on prescribed burning on the island of Chios, aiming to introduce prescribed burning as a tool for forest fuel management. Our team consists of researchers and practitioners from WWF Greece, the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems of ELGO DIMITRA, the Forest Directorate of Chios Island, and...

The island of Kythira, in Greece, suffered a devastating forest fire that started on August 4, 2017. After that, it became evident that the location of the island, away from aerial fire suppression resources bases and with limited capacity for quick arrival of significant ground firefighting reinforcements, necessitates careful fire prevention and...

Pyrosilviculture and understory fuel management to reduce forest stand and landscape flammability represent loss-making interventions from an economic point of view. Consequently, prevention is carried out above all on public property and with public funds (e.g. Rural Development Programs), while the interest of the private individual for preventio...

A presente obra resulta das contribuições de quase 1000 investigadores internacionais sobre questões relacionadas com os incêndios florestais. A obra tem a sua origem na “9th International Conference on Forest Fire Research”, uma conferência internacional sobre a mesma temática, que reúne de 4 em 4 anos na região de Coimbra os mais prestigiados e r...

A 2-year pilot project on prescribed burning (PB) has been running on the island of Chios, Greece since 2021. A core team of researchers and practitioners from WWF Greece, the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems of ELGO "DIMITRA", the Forest Directorate of Chios Island, and the Voluntary Action Team “OMIKRON”, is conducting planned field P...

The forest fire season of 2021 in Greece was exceptional; the volume of hectares burned, and the fire-caused damages, led to heated debate in parliament and the media about the country’s fire management organization. The season was characterized by an early start of significant fires that continued throughout the summer, with increasing firefightin...

Forest fires causes and motivations are poorly understood in southern and south-eastern Europe. This research aims to identify how experts perceive the different causes of forest fires as defined in the classification proposed by the European Commission in 2013. A panel of experts (N = 271) was gathered from the EU Southern Member States (France, G...

The island of Kythira in Greece suffered a major forest fire in 2017 that burned 8.91% of its total area and revealed many challenges regarding fire management. Following that, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature joined forces with the Institute of Mediterranean and Forest Ecosystems in a project aiming to improve fire prevention ther...

Οι αρχαιολογικοί χώροι που βρίσκονται στο ύπαιθρο είναι συχνά εκτεθειμένοι σε φυσικούς κινδύνους. Ιδιαίτερα σημαντικοί είναι οι κίνδυνοι από πλημμύρες και δασικές πυρκαγιές, που θέτουν σε κίνδυνο τόσο μνημεία όσο και την ασφάλεια των επισκεπτών και του προσωπικού διαχείρισης των χώρων. Μάλιστα, η συνδυαστική δράση των δύο κινδύνων και ειδικότερα η...

Στην παρούσα εργασία παρουσιάζονται συνοπτικά η χωρική εξάπλωση καθώς και ποσοτικά χαρακτηριστικά της δεύτερης έως σήμερα, πιο θανατηφόρας δασικής πυρκαγιάς του 21ου αιώνα διεθνώς και χειρότερης καταστροφής τέτοιου τύπου για την Ελλάδα, που ξέσπασε στην Πεντέλη στις 23 Ιουλίου 2018. Καθοδηγήθηκε προς την ανατολική ακτή της Αττικής από θυελλώδη άνε...

Οι δασικές πυρκαγιές είναι ένα δύσκολο πρόβλημα για την χώρα μας. Το νησί των Κυθήρων όπου μία σημαντική δασική πυρκαγιά έλαβε χώρα το 2017, δεν αποτελεί εξαίρεση. Με αφορμή αυτό το γεγονός, ξεκίνησε το 2019 ένα έργο για την πρόληψη των δασικών πυρκαγιών στο νησί με κινητοποίηση και των κατοίκων και με χρηματοδότηση από το Πράσινο Ταμείο. Οι δράσει...

Forest fires burn with varying severity across landscapes. As severity is tied with fire’s ecological effects, evaluating and mapping it after a fire, is highly useful for efficient post-fire assessment and management. The aim of this study is to introduce the broadly used Composite Burn Index (CBI) for the assessment of fire severity in Greece. Ad...

Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-...

Safety in touristic destinations is of utmost importance since tourists’ preferences change frequently in response to emerging threats. Natural hazards are a significant risk and, as such, they need to be considered in the effort for safe tourism. Services and systems monitoring and predicting extreme natural phenomena and disasters in sites of spe...

Οι δασικές πυρκαγιές κατά τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες έχουν εξελιχθεί σε ένα σημαντικό πονοκέφαλο για τις κυβερνήσεις και έναν άλυτο γρίφο για τις κοινωνίες που αναγνωρίζουν μεν την ύπαρξη ενός σοβαρού προβλήματος αλλά δεν έχουν σαφή εικόνα για το πώς μπορεί να λυθεί. Συζητήσεις οι οποίες μεταδίδονται τηλεοπτικά ή ραδιοφωνικά, κυρίως μετά από τραγικά...

Marathon Lake is an artificial reservoir with great environmental, ecological, social, and economic significance because it was the main source of water for Athens, the capital of Greece, for many years. The present study details the first attempt to map sedimentation in Marathon Lake in detail, using bathymetric mapping and soil erosion field surv...

Φέτος συμπληρώθηκαν τρία χρόνια από την ιστορική καταστροφική πυρκαγιά που τον Αύγουστο του 2017 έπληξε τα Κύθηρα και έκαψε – μαζί με τις πυρκαγιές του Ιουλίου και του Νοεμβρίου της ίδιας αντιπυρικής περιόδου - περίπου το 1/12 του νησιού και το 1/3 των δασικών του εκτάσεων. Στις αρχές του 2019, σχεδιάστηκε, υποβλήθηκε στο Πράσινο Ταμείο του Υπουργ...

Adapting to the growing frequency of large-scale wildfires in Greece and mitigating their effects can be a difficult risk governance problem to solve. We used an on-line questionnaire to query more than 100 engaged stakeholders that can potentially influence possible legislation and fire management organizational reform, emphasizing civil protectio...

We provide a map of wildland urban interface (WUI) areas at national scale in Greece, using as primary data the Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2018 product. The WUI areas distribution in Greece is calculated for all the regional units of the county. The regional units correspond to NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) level 2 for Greece...

Extreme wildfires events (EWEs) represent a minority among all wildfires, but are a true challenge for societies, as they exceed the current control capacity even in the best prepared regions of the world, and they create destruction and a disproportionately number of fatalities. Recent events in Portugal, Chile, Greece, and the USA provide evidenc...

During the last decades, climate and land use changes led to an increased prevalence of megafires in Mediterranean-type climate regions (MCRs). Here, we argue that current wildfire management policies in MCRs are destined to fail. Focused on fire suppression, these policies largely ignore ongoing climate warming and landscape-scale buildup of fuels...

Definition: A crown fire is defined as a fire that has ascended from the ground into the forest canopy and is spreading through it, usually in conjunction with the surface fuels. Introduction: Live vegetation and dead vegetative fuel in forests, woodlands, and shrublands is generally distributed in layers along a vertical vegetation profile from...

In this chapter, the cases of the extreme wildfires and disasters that occurred in Portugal in 2013 (Picões and Caramulo) and in 2017 (Pedrogão Grande and Central Region), their fire environment, fire propagation, and impacts are described. The Portuguese experience is complemented with other cases that occurred in Greece, Italy, Australia, USA, an...

In 2018, Greece experienced the second deadliest fire of the 21st century – with 102 fatalities, 150 injuries and extensive damage. The Government appointed an independent committee of wildland fire experts to look at what went so badly wrong, and prevent the repetition of such a tragedy. Here, the committee summarises its findings.

Information collected on fatalities including civilian and firefighters during wildfire and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fire. This information is used to better understand the context surrounding fatalities and to support emergency management policies.

Backfire is a forest fire suppression method based on the use of fire by fire-fighters on path of an arriving fire in order to stop its spread. In today's world that is characterized by fires of increasing intensity that cannot suppressed with direct attack of the fire front, backfire is in many cases an important fire-fighting tool which, however,...

This article offers an overview of wildfires and fire management in the Eastern Mediterranean, Southeastern Europe, and Middle East Regions, putting emphasis on the changes that have taken place in the last few decades and the way they affected that current fire situation. More specifically, the article discusses changing demographics, political an...

The 2018 fire season in Greece started out quietly. The weather was quite favorable, with above average precipitation and lack of strong winds and/or heat waves. But on July 23rd - things changed dramatically. On that tragic day, a wildfire in Northeastern Attica set a new record for fire fatalities in Greece, and became the second deadliest fire i...

60 (ΦΕΚ 3937/Β/2018)

Wildfire fatalities remain a significant problem in Mediterranean Europe. Although there is a strong inter-annual variability with regard to their number, repeated tragic accidents remind us of this grim occurrence, despite the increasing firefighting capacity aimed to improve human safety. In this paper, we present an analysis of the 865 fatalitie...

Forest fires constitute a serious and increasing threat throughout Europe, and in particular in Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Despite a decreasing trend in the number of fires and areas burned, observed in some countries since the 1980s, larger and more damaging fires (i.e. ‘megafires’) are challenging the suppression capacities of man...

Mount Hymettus is a mountain lining the east side of Athens, the capital of Greece. Its proximity to the city, its flammable vegetation, and the variety of human activities (recreation, beekeeping, etc.) often result in problems with forest fires, which have reached a very high frequency in the last twenty years. These fires are of significant inte...

This paper presents a study on the phenomenon of spotting in some of the most common forest vegetation types in Greece, during wildfires in the 2007-2017 period. Monitoring and documenting selected wildfires during this period, noting the appearance or absence of spot fires and the prevailing conditions at the time, a database of 166 field observat...

Η αντιπυρική περίοδος του 2018 ξεκίνησε και κύλισε με τους καλύτερους οιωνούς, χωρίς την εμφάνιση συνθηκών καύσωνα, αλλά και με τακτική εκδήλωση βροχοπτώσεων μέσα στο καλοκαίρι, ακόμη και σε μεγάλες περιοχές της νότιας Ελλάδας. Παρόλα αυτά, έμελλε να καταγραφεί με μελανά χρώματα στη συλλογική μνήμη των Ελλήνων, χαρακτηρισμένη από την τραγική πυρκαγ...

While volunteered geographic information (VGI) has emerged as a highly significant aid in emergencies caused by natural disasters, such as floods, related research in Greece is very limited so far. This article aspires to cover this gap by introducing some initial methods for extracting and mapping related information from VGI sources, contributing...

This article presents an effort to validate and further improve a previously published innovative approach for drawing macroseismic intensity maps from data extracted from sources of volunteered geographic information (VGI). Our approach involves classification of macroseismic observations (extracted from social media sources) to values of the EMS...

Every year worldwide some extraordinary wildfires occur, overwhelming suppression capabilities, causing substantial damages, and often resulting in fatalities. Given their increasing frequency, there is a debate about how to address these wildfires with significant social impacts, but there is no agreement upon terminology to describe them. The con...

This paper presents the development of a fuel model for areas covered by Cistus spp. in Greece. This fuel model is intended to be used as input for fire behavior prediction systems such as BehavePlus, FARSITE, etc.. Thirty plots, 1 m2 each, were sampled destructively in phryganic areas dominated by Cistus species, namely Cistus creticus, Cistus par...

Οι δασικές πυρκαγιές αποτελούν σημαντικό πρόβλημα στις χώρες της Μεσογειακής Ευρώπης οι οποίες, έχοντας σφικτούς προϋπολογισμούς, προσπαθούν να βελτιώσουν όχι μόνο την αποτελεσματικότητα αλλά και την αποδοτικότητα της διαχείρισής του φυσικού αυτού φαινομένου/κινδύνου. Η καλή εκπαίδευση του προσωπικού αποτελεί σημαντικό εργαλείο για το σκοπό αυτό. Σ...

Key messageFuel moisture and chemical content affecting live plant flammability can be measured through laboratory and field techniques, or remotely assessed. Standardization of methodologies and a better understanding of plant attributes and phenological status can improve models for fire management. ContextWildland fire management is subject to m...

Loss prediction models are an important part of wildfire risk assessment, but have received only limited attention in the scientific literature. Such models can support decision-making on preventive measures targeting fuels or potential ignition sources, on fire suppression, on mitigation of consequences and on effective allocation of funds. This p...

Although forest fires are considered an integral part of forest ecosystems, the abundance of human activities in forested areas has led to a significant number of human casualties and to important effects on properties and infrastructure. Over recent decades, Greece has suffered extensive forest fire disasters, with a significant number of fataliti...

The current wildfire policies in European Union countries have not solved the wildfire problem and probably will not be effective in the future, as all the initiatives focus on suppression and minimize the use of fire embedded in the Traditional Ecologic Knowledge of European communities. The traditional fire use as a tool for land management has b...

Περίληψη: Η παρούσα εργασία αφορά τις δασικές πυρκαγιές και τη διαχείρισή τους. Αρχικά γίνεται συνοπτική αναφορά στο πλήθος των παραγόντων που υπεισέρχονται στην έναρξή τους, τα χαρακτηριστικά εξάπλωσής τους, το δυναμικό καταστροφής, την αντιμετώπισή τους και τις οικολογικές και κοινωνικοοικονομικές συνέπειές τους ώστε να γίνει αντιληπτή η πολυπλοκ...

The fire season of 2015 in Greece was a relatively easy one, with a late start. Until the middle of July no large fires had occurred in the country. However, Friday, July 17, was to be a really exceptional day. The fire danger prediction map issued by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection for that day indicated " high " fire danger for almos...

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The main objective of this study is the design and the development of a fire management software tool for Mediterranean pine forests of Greece. The system operates as a standalone application and allows the end users to apply various fire environment (meteorology, topography, fuel) scenarios in order to estimate the characteristics of fuel complexe...

In this study we examined the effect of stand, topographic, and climatic factors on the fuel complex characteristics of Aleppo (Pinus halepensis Mill.) and Calabrian (Pinus brutia Ten.) pine forests of Greece, based on measurements in fifty six (56) plots dominated by Aleppo pine (28 plots) and Calabrian pine (28 plots) in four different forest sit...

Forest fires (term used in Europe to designate the unwanted fires burning forests and wild lands) constitute a serious problem for Europe. Frequently, Thought of almost exclusively as a problem for France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, this chapter introduces how fire is now a hazard that affects most of the European countries. Although, a sh...

In the Mediterranean Sea region wildfires are a priority concern because of the damages they cause in forest and rural areas. Wildfire management is a complex issue presenting many challenges. One of these challenges is achieving management objectives while keeping cost under control. Greece is a Mediterranean country facing a serious and worsenin...

This paper presents a comparison of ninety five (95) Rate Of Spread (ROSobserved) and seventy(70) Flame Length (FLobserved) observations of surface wildfire behavior in Greece with predictions from the BehavePlus fire behavior prediction system for tall and short Mediterranean shrublands (maquis), phryganic lands dominated by the small xeric shrub...

In 2007 Greece faced its worst forest fire season on record. It started early in June and continued until late September. Especially in the period of August 24-27 many of the fires could be described as megafires since, according to the definition, they “exhibited fire behavior characteristics that exceeded all efforts at control”. During those day...

In Europe, the fire suppression policy (command and control chain approach) even though it has been able, for the time being, to stop the increase in annually burned area, it has not addressed the diversity and complexity of fire causes and to prevent the appearance of extreme fire events that result in major disasters. Signs of the necessary chang...

Greece is a European country with Mediterranean climate that faces serious challenges with wildfires, as the combination of high forest vegetation flammability and hot and windy summer weather, often resulting in very intense fire behavior. As a result, large forest and agricultural areas are burned every year. Villages and other wildlandurban inte...

Forest fires have been present in Greece, a Mediterranean country with long history, from the ancient times. However they have become a serious problem in the last few decades resulting in large burned areas, significant property destruction and even loss of life. This chapter describes the evolution of the problem and how the Greek state tried to...

Knowledge of the spatial distribution of fuel types is essential for implementation of the fire models predicting fire behaviour, severity and spread. In the present study, the most commonly used fuel classifications systems currently employed worldwide and the associated methods for generating a fuel type classification has been examined and compa...

This paper presents a testing of surface wildfire rate of spread (ROS) field observations (ROS observed(surface)) versus rate of spread predictions (ROS predicted(surface)) from BehavePlus (Andrews et al., 2005) for tall and short Mediterranean shrublands, Sarcopoterium spinosum (small xeric shrub, up to 0.5 m height) and grass. In order to evaluat...

Forest fires (term used in Europe to designate the unwanted fires burning forests and wild lands) constitute a serious problem for Europe. Frequently, Thought of almost exclusively as a problem for France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, this chapter introduces how fire is now a hazard that affects most of the European countries. Although, a sh...

Στο παρόν άρθρο συσχετίζονται η απουσία, η εμφάνιση και η κλιμάκωση της έντασης του φαινομένου της κηλίδωσης (μετάδοση των δασικών πυρκαγιών με καύτρες) με τις επικρατούσες τιμές της σχετικής υγρασίας του αέρα, σε συνδυασμό με τους τύπους της βλάστησης όπου προσγειώνονται οι καύτρες. Τα ευρήματα προέκυψαν από την αξιοποίηση δείγματος 75 περιπτώσεων...

Current trends in the Mediterranean climate, and more specifically in Greece, indicate longer and more intense summer droughts that even extend out of season. In connection to this, the frequency of forest fire occurrence and intensity is on the rise. In the present study, the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is used in order to investigate the re...

Within the framework of the EU-co-funded research project “FIRESENSE: Fire Detection and Management through a Multi-Sensor Network for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Areas from Risk of Fire and Extreme Weather Conditions”, an interactive application has been developed (Estimation of Fire Propagation, EFP) allowing users to define simulation p...

This paper concerns on site observations and measurements of spotting in wildland fires during the last six fire seasons in Greece (2007 until 2012). For a total of 75 observations, spotting ignition or absence of the phenomenon were documented and an ordinal variable named Κκ was created in order to represent the following four empirical classes:...

This paper describes the evolution of the large and destructive fire of NE Attica, on 21-24 August 2009 and makes reference to the firefighting efforts, based on in situ observations during the fire and subsequent collection of data from visits to burned areas, testimonials of residents and individuals who were involved in the firefighting effort,...