Abstract

Wildfires have always been present in Mediterranean ecosystems and thus constitute a major ecological and socioeconomic concern. During the last decades, both the number and average size of large fires have experienced an increasing trend, causing extensive economic and ecological losses and often human casualties (Dimitrakopoulos and Mitsopoulos 2005). Increased wildland fire activity over the last 30 years has had profound effects on the budgets and operational priorities of the forest services, civil protection agencies, fire brigades, and local entities with wildland fire management responsibilities (Giannakopoulos et al. 2009; Dimitrakopoulos et al. 2011; Koutsias et al. 2013). Significant alterations in the fire regime have occurred in recent decades, primarily as a result of socioeconomic changes, increasing dramatically the catastrophic impact of wildfires. Despite the recent advances in firefighting tactics and means and the increased amount of resources allocated for fire suppression, the efficiency of the adopted strategy has been decreasing over the last four decades, with both number of fires and burnt area increasing (Bassi et al. 2008).