Forest Defence Against Fire

Não aplicável

Teaching methodologies will be based on theoretic-practical lectures. Students will make a recurrent use of
computers to perform exercises with specific software.
Evaluation includes theoretical and practical assessments including the use of computers to simulate fire behavior using system Behave+; the computation of FWI index and the simulation of a prescription of fuel treatment using system Piropinus.

To know the problem of forest fires in Portugal both regarding the ignition problem as the propagation and respective effects;
To know and to apply fire prevention techniques, in a way to decrease the number of fire starts, to decrease the propagation potential, to increase resilience and to mitigate fire effects; To know the different aspects associated with fire fighting including those related with pre-supression, initial attack, general fire fighting, supression fire and mop up operations.

General aspects about wildfires: combustion and fuel characteristics; propagation and fire behavior; models of fire behavior; fire ecology; fire effects; mitigation of fire effects and reclamation of burned areas; common causes of fire starts in Portugal; evolution and present situation of forest fires in Portugal and in Europe.
Prevention of forest fires: public awareness, fuel management, including prescribed fire; preventive silviculture; network of fuel breaks; spatial fire risk.
Fire fighting: pre-supression, fire danger rating systems, initial attack, general fire fighting, use of chemical products, direct and indirect attack techniques, mop-up operations,  investigation of fire causes.

• - Test - 50.0%
• - Field work and report - 50.0%

NAO