Research

Interest in establishing wind turbines in the forest is increasing. Therefore, the Austrian Federal Forest company, as Austria's largest forest owner, initiated a research project to develop criteria and indicators for silvicultural risk assessment related to the construction of wind turbines in the forest areas. Thus, the purpose of this research is develop (i) to criteria and indicators for assessing the silvicultural risk of the forest stands adjacent to the open spaces necessary for the installation of wind turbines, and (ii) criteria and indicators for an ecological reforestation of open areas after the establishing wind turbines. Legal, ornithological or other framework conditions that are relevant for the installation of a wind turbine in the forest are beyond the purpose of this research.

Wildfire CE’s primary objective is to enable border regions, the communities and landscapes within them, to prepare, respond and adapt to the increasing wildfire risk resulting from climate change. The project will change the way we assess and manage fire risk in the border regions and the wider territories. Through cooperation across borders, sharing knowledge and experience it will lead to a more integrated, targeted and inclusive approach in dealing with this increasing threat. Until now, the management of wildfire risk has been conducted at the territorial level, with mismatched approaches to fire warning levels, land management and communication of risk. The mapping of fuels and propagation potential is seldom conducted at the territorial level, let alone across borders. WildfireCE will map these fuels, fire behaviour and propagation potential across borders, it will identify where actions are necessary, what those actions are and it will implement those actions in Pilot Regions. In Work Package 1 the activities identifying risk, best practice and spatial information will lead to the creation of a manual for assessing wildfire risk in CE border areas. This solution to the problem of limited information at a strategic level in managing risk will benefit local/regional authorities, sectoral agencies, infrastructure providers and of course the public at large. Work Package 2 uses the information from WP1 alongside additional work to identify risk and priority areas, better access and resource mapping for use in an on-line platform, which enables planning authorities and emergency services amongst others to better target actions and resources to reduce risk. This output will be tested as a Pilot Action in the Pilot Regions. The data within the platform will be available to the territories’ for integration in existing regional /national platforms. Based on the findings of WP1 and WP2, WP3 alongside regional stakeholders, will develop and implement action plans for the Pilot Regions. Finally, a strategy will be produced aimed specifically at transferring the findings, lessons and approaches to other regions and territories.

Raising awareness and modelling the forest fire danger are essential aspects of preventive measures for an integrated forest fire management. In Austria, there are currently only a few initiatives for rising awareness about the current fire danger and platforms that support the modelling. The Institute of Silviculture is currently running the prototype of an integrated system for forest fire risk assessment (waldbrand.at) and the only forest fire blog (fireblog.boku.ac.at). These two established platforms require constant support and further development. Within the scope of this project, measures are therefore to be taken to ensure the functionality and performance, conduct necessary updates and bug fixes as well as ensure the security of both platforms. Additionally new functionalities should be implemented and a higher media outreach should be achieved through cooperations with different target groups and communication channels. The platforms should be used as an expert tool for forest fire danger assessment, bundle existing knowledge on forest fires and serve as an effective communication channel in close cooperation with ongoing forest fire projects.