The State of Early Warning Systems - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 111

Fig. 6.2 Global Volcanism Program (Source: http://volcano.si.edu/products.cfm?p=9 )
Institute has developed an innovative system for wildfi re monitoring. This system,
available since September 2008, allows individuals to contribute information from the
ground into a GIS (and Google Maps) based platform, making it one of the most suc-
cessful websites in Brazil. The information that was contributed on forest fi res and
illegal logging has resulted in follow-up legal initiatives and parliamentary enquiries.
On a global scale, the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) provides informa-
tion on wildfi res worldwide including fi re danger maps and forecasts, near real-time
fi re events information, an archive of global fi re information, and assistance and
support in the case of a fi re emergency. The Experimental Climate Prediction Center
(ECPC) provides global fi re weather forecasts, and NOAA provides fi re products
based on estimated intensity and duration of vegetation stress, as a proxy of potential
fi re danger.
The UN FAO Global Fire Information Management System (GFIMS) and its
precursor the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) support
fi re managers globally by providing near real-time information on active fi res world-
wide, through an online platform and e-mail alerts to registered users (see Fig. 6.3 ).
The European Forest Fire Information System also provides information on cur-
rent fi re situations and forecasts for Europe and the Mediterranean area.
Launched in 2011, the Global Early Warning System for Wildland Fires (Global
EWS-Fire) is a project of the Global Observation of Forest Cover and Global
Observation of Landcover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) Fire Implementation Team and
is supported by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The
system provides a global scale map of the 1-7 day and monthly forecasted fi re weather
index. In the future, historical fi re and weather data (primarily remotely sensed) will be
used to calibrate the system. The Global EWS-Fire, which builds on existing national
and regional fi re management programs, is described in the following chapter.
Even if several wildfi re EWSs exist, most developing countries have neither a
fi re early warning nor monitoring systems in place (Goldammer et al. 2003 ).