Abstract
Urban growth worldwide has generated great concern in the planning of the different environments belonging to the wildland-urban interface. One of the problems that arise is the landscape treatment given to roads, which must not only comply with aesthetic and ecological principles, but also be functional, adding functions relating to forest fire prevention and control. The components for proper road functioning, such as slopes, right of ways, medians, signs, bridges and service stations, need appropriate landscape treatments to not only improve and conserve the site, but also to provide both comfort and safety to drivers and passengers. The relationship of these structures with the environment and road users requires incorporating fireresistance characteristics into the layout, composition and selection of the plant species used. The Highways Department of the state of Paraná, Brazil recommends 22 standards that define the function of the sites and the characteristics of the vegetation to be established. In none of these standards is forest fire risk taken into account. To contribute to road landscaping, the aim of this study was to analyze the fire risks of these landscape patterns so as to enrich them with less flammable species to inhibit and / or impede the spread of fire. In a detailed analysis of the recommended standards, it was found that in 50% of these standards, fire risk is one of the basic factors for the selection of species used. According to this research, road landscape standards that present the highest fire risks are: bus stops, service stations, property boundaries, industrial zones, native vegetation, degraded areas, green barriers (shelterbelts), slopes and central medians. We conclude that forest fire risk assessment in road landscape planning should be an essential tool to reduce damage caused by fire in the wildland-urban interface areas of Paraná, Brazil.
Parent Publication
Keywords
road landscaping,
landscape,
fire prevention
Citation
Biondi, Daniela; Batista, Antonio Carlos; Martini, Angeline. 2013. Fire risk in the road landscape patterns of the state of Paraná, Brazil - planning grants for the wildland-urban interface. In: González-Cabán, Armando, tech. coord. Proceedings of the fourth international symposium on fire economics, planning, and policy: climate change and wildfires. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-245 (English). Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: 326-337
