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rainfall, but it may be considered a moderate or low value in drier biomes. For that
reason, there is additional value in understanding fi re danger in relation to the
“local” fi re regime, which includes the infl uences of fuel, ignition sources, climate,
fi re management/suppression policy, etc. The next stage in development of the
Global EWS-Fire is regional calibration to adjust the fi re danger scales using his-
torical fi re data (primarily remotely sensed) and weather data. This procedure will
calibrate the Global EWS-Fire to provide operational-level information such as
potential for fi re starts and diffi culty of control. Regional calibration will be a col-
laborative effort with regional and national agencies.
7.3.4
Regional Early Warning Systems
Organized regional fi re groups, such as the Regional Networks of the UNISDR
Global Wildland Fire Network 11 and the GOFC-GOLD Regional Networks, 12 have
the mandate to promote regional fi re management collaboration and provide national
support in the practical application of wildland fi re science and technology. As such,
regional groups and agencies serve as a formal linkage between global and national
levels. Regional systems are often an effi cient way to operate a system for many
countries in an area with common values and fi re issues. Several prototype exam-
ples of regional products have been demonstrated during the development of the
Global EWS-Fire (see Figs. 7.6 , 7.7 , and 7.8 ).
There are a number of regionally operating fi re danger rating systems covering
Europe and North Africa, 13 South East Asia, 14 Southern Africa, 15 Eastern Europe
and Northern Asia, 16 and South America 17 (Table 7.2 ). Some of these regional fi re
danger rating systems are actively being expanded to become early warning systems
by incorporating longer-term fi re danger forecasts and enhancing fi re danger prod-
ucts with additional satellite data on fi re activity and fuel conditions.
7.3.5
National Systems and Local Level
For centrally organized fi re management agencies, the national or subnational level
(provinces, states, and/or territories) is the point of primary decision-making. Fire
11 http://www.fi re.uni-freiburg.de/GlobalNetworks/globalNet.html .
12 http://gofc-fi re.umd.edu/RegNtwks/index.php .
13 http://forest.jrc.ec.europa.eu/effi s/ .
14 http://haze.asean.org/ .
15 http://wamis.meraka.org.za/products/fi re-danger .
16 http://www.fi re.uni-freiburg.de/fwf/eurasia1.htm .
17 http://www.inpe.br/queimadas/abasFogo.php .
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