GFMC Meetings Calendar 2017
GEO-SAFE Project Conference
State of the art in RTD for Wildfire Prevention and Suppression
6-7 April 2017, Valabre, France
Aim and Scope
Forest fires are an annual occurrence in many parts of the world causing important economic and ecological losses, and often, human casualties. Research in the last decade has provided a series of upgraded tools and methods to face this major threat. This conference, part of a series of events planned by the GEO-SAFE project, will be a great opportunity to establish a state of the art in this area and to bring together academic and end user forest fire experts from across Europe.
Organized by the Entente pour la Forêt Méditerranéenne in the historical French civil protection site of Valabre, this conference will focus on fire behavior, fire safety, and fire tools and will also give attendees the opportunity to visit the CESIR (European Risk Simulation Center), and participate to several demonstrations (UAV).
Project Background
Forest fires are an annual occurrence in many parts of the world causing evacuation of nearby residential and industrial facilities. In EU and Australia, every year thousands of square miles of forests and other lands burn due to wildfires. These fires affect the population and environment of the adjacent areas causing important economic and ecological losses, and often, human causalities.
Both EU and Australian governments are aware of how crucial it is to improve wildfires management and containment. Scientists from different specialties, both in EU and Australia, have already developed methods and models in order to improve the management and decision process pertaining to preparedness and response phases in case of bushfire.
The GEO-SAFE project, aims at creating a network enabling the two regions to exchange knowledge, ideas and experience, thus boosting the progress of wildfires knowledge and the related development of innovative methods for dealing efficiently with such fires. More precisely, the GEO-SAFE project will focus on developing the tools enabling to set up an integrated decision support system optimizing the resources during the response phase.
Project duration: May 2016April 2020
Project reference: 691161
Project Coordinator: FSEG University of Greenwich, UK
Funded by: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)
Project Budget (contribution from the EU): 1,080,000
Project Website: http://geosafe.lessonsonfire.eu/
The “State of the art in RTD for wildfire prevention and suppression” conference programmed on 6 to 7 April 2017 is part of a series of events planned by the GEO-SAFE project. The aim of these events is to foster communication between stakeholders and researchers and facilitate knowledge exchange.
This event is organized on behalf of the GEO-SAFE consortium by the Entente pour la Forêt Mediterranéenne (Entente for the Mediterranean Forest) and more specifically by its test and research center CEREN.
About the Organizing Entity
The Entente for the Mediterranean Forest is a public entity created in 1962 to answer the forest fire problem. It currently gathers 14 French departments and departmental fire and rescue services. Since the modernization of the civil protection law in 2004 it covers four missions related to risks: Training, new technologies, research and public awareness.
The CEREN (Test & Research Center of the Entente) covers the large spectrum of forest fire research, including consequences on personnel, equipment and environment (chemical additives, material resistance, fire causes…). The CEREN also validates crisis management and decision aid tools by representing end-users in many European research projects.
Conference Website
http://wildfireconference.wixsite.com/wildfire-rtd-conf
