International and other Landscape Fire Research Programmes
This GFMC web page has been re-designed in 2005 and is providing links to international and interdisciplinary research projects and programmes. Readers are encouraged to submit a short text and links to websites missing here:
The Biomass Burning Experiment (BIBEX): Impact of Fire on the Atmosphere and Biosphere
One of the core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) project. The overall objectives of IGAC Focus 2 are to understand the chemical processing and transport of gases in the tropical atmosphere, and the role of terrestrial biosphere- atmosphere trace gas exchanges in regulating atmospheric composition. Much of the research in this Focus is directed toward understanding the effects of human activities, especially land-use change and land-use intensification, on trace gas fluxes and atmospheric chemistry. In the 1990s, with decreasing activities since then, the project Biomass Burning Experiment: Impact of Fire on the Atmosphere and Biosphere (BIBEX)investigated the role and impact of vegetation fires on ecosystems and the atmosphere. For details see the BIBEX website at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry / Global Fire Monitoring Center at:
Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS)
ILEAPS is the 10-year land-atmosphere core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). The scientific goal of iLEAPS is to provide an understanding of how interacting physical, chemical and biological processes transport and transform energy and matter through the land-atmosphere interface. The project studies interactions and feedbacks from the cell level to a global scale. Times scales range from diurnal to centennial, past to future. ILEAPS encourages international and cross-disciplinary collaboration, particularly involving scientists from the developing countries. The Fire-Land-Atmosphere Regional Ecosystem Studies (FLARES) is addressing the role of vegetation fires in the Southern Hemisphere and investigating the annual extent and inter-annual variability of vegetation fires in the Southern Hemisphere, the impact of fire management on fire occurrence and fire emissions, characterization of gaseous and particulate emissions from these fires, and how these emissions affect atmospheric oxidant balance, radiation balance, and cloud properties.
FIRE PARADOX
In 2006 an international and interdisciplinary forest fire research programme has been granted by the European Commission. With the participation of 36 institutions from 17 countries the project “FIRE PARADOX – An innovative approach of Integrated Wildland Fire Management Regulating the Wildfire Problem by the Wise Use of Fire: Solving the Fire Paradox” was conducted between 2006 and 2010:
IS4FIRES
The main objectives of Integrated Monitoring and Modelling System for Wildland Fires is to develop an Integrated Monitoring and Modelling System (IS) for wildland fires. The project will also organize a controlled forest fire dispersion measurement campaign.
International Organizations Facilitating Cooperative Research
Two other international research organizations have included a fire research component which is closely linked to the IGBP projects and the Global Fire Monitoring Center:
- The International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA)
- The International Union of Forestry Research Associations (IUFRO)