Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha

Short name
UCLM
Web
http://www.uclm.es/

Country
Spain
Role
The leader of the UCLM group will be the Coordinator of the project. UCLM will be involved in all modules. Mod. 1: land-use/land cover change and fire mapping (WP 1.1, 1.2) will be done at Montes de Toledo, Quintos de Mora Range Station (Central Spain). Climate and fire relationships will be conducted at site level and for the whole of Spain using fire statistics (WP1.2). The group will also participate in the attribution exercise (WP1.3). Mod. 2: participation in projecting fire danger and risk at large and local scales (WP2.2) and in conducting experiments to determine vegetation vulnerabilities to extremes (WP2.3, 2.4). Mod. 3: participation in WP 3.2 (restoration: habitat change). Mod.4: will be the leader and leader for WP 4.4 and WP4.5.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The Coordinator is Vice-Chair of the WG II of the IPCC, and was Coordinating Lead Author in the AR4 of the IPCC. He directed the first Spanish national climate change impact study (ECCE), and was a member of the steering group of the first climate change impact study of Europe (ACACIA). He coordinated POST-Fire, LUCIFER and RICAMARE projects, participated in ALARM, ATEAM, SPREAD, ERAS, DELFI.

Brief description of the legal entity
The University of Castilla-La Mancha is a public, higher education and research institution. It has ca. 30.000 students and 1500 faculty. The Coordinator, José M. Moreno, is the leader of the Fire Ecology Group, and Director of the Department of Environmental Sciences (35 members: Ecology, Plant Sciences, Zoology, and Climatology).
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Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo

Short name
CEAM
Web
http://www.ceam.es/

Country
Spain
Role
Analysis of past and future extreme events, especially wind, using a mesometeorological model and synoptic conditions. Modeling fire propagation for alternatives of fuel management at the landscape scale. Analysis of restoration alternatives and developing guidelines for forest managers. Member of the steering committee, Co-leader of Module 3. CEAM will actively participate in all three Modules of RTD and in the management of the project. In Module 1, CEAM will participate in WP 1.1 and WP 1.2; in Module 2, in WP 2.3 and in Module 3 in WP 3.1 and WP 3.2 (as WP leader, in the latter).

Work packages

WP 1.1
WP 1.2
WP 2.3
WP 3.1
WP 3.2
WP 4.2
WP 4.3
WP 4.4
WP 4.5

Members

Vallejo, Ramón
Duguy, Beatriz

Experience
CEAM has a large experience in the analysis of fire weather, ecosystem responses to fires and on burned and degraded ecosystems restoration. The main focus of the group’s research is to use meso-meteorological models to predict local weather conditions, especially wind, and to develop techniques for restoration of Mediterranean ecosystems according to climate conditions and site degradation. CEAM is developing a Programme on Restoration of Burned and Degraded Forests promoted and funded by the Regional Government of Valencia since 1991, carried out in close collaboration with the Regional Forest Service. V.R Vallejo has recently coordinated the EC REACTION project that built a Mediterranean database on evaluated restoration projects. The group has participated in a number of EU R+D projects related to land restoration and forest fires, such as REMECOS, DELFI, LUCIFER, REDMED, EUFIRELAB, CREOAK, GEORANGE, SPREAD, MEDRAP, REACTION, LIFE-ECOQUARRY, CIRCE and PRACTICE (in bold coordinated by V.R. Vallejo).

Brief description of the legal entity
Fundación Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo (Foundation Mediterranean Centre for Environmental Studies, hereafter CEAM) is a non-profit research organisation.
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Università degli Studi della Tuscia

Short name
UNITUS
Web
http://www.unitus.it/

Country
Italy
Role
UNITUS will be involved in the activities of Mod. 3, WP 31.

Work packages
Members
Experience
DISAFRI has been and is actively involved in several national and international research programmes in the field environmental monitoring and assessment, including projects addressing forest fire issues and climate change impacts on Mediterranean ecosystems: – COST Action FP0701, Post-Fire Forest Management in Southern Europe – VI FP IP-Project, Climate Change and Impact Research: the Mediterranean Environment – CIRCE

Brief description of the legal entity
The University of Tuscia is a public higher education and research institution with six faculties; the Department of Forest Environment and Resources (DISAFRI, Faculty of Agriculture), carries out research, graduate and post-graduate education within the fields of forest environmental monitoring, inventory and planning, ecophysiology and carbon sequestration modeling, fire prevention planning, post-fire monitoring and forest restoration.
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Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionelle et Evolutive

Short name
CNRS-CEFE
Web
http://www.cefe.cnrs.fr/

Country
France
Role
The team will propose scenarios of on-going climate changes (WP 2.1.1). Scenarios will be used for evaluating ecosystem vulnerability and susceptibility to fire. Regional water limitation and drought indices will be simulated with a water balance model. Today drought maps will be validated against remotely sensed indices (WP 2.2.2). We will develop a new vegetation model able to both simulate ecosystem function and species replacement. It will be distributed to the consortium and associated with a generic database derivate from a metaanalysis of functional traits of the dominant Mediterranean species (WP 2.3.2). Empirical fire propagation routines will be tested with the model from WP 2.3.2 and validated.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The team worked for year on the dynamic, function and vulnerability of Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) submitted to climate changes and perturbations such as fires. It was internationally recognized by its expertise on these topics working at scales ranging from leaf to region. Our LTER site of Puéchabon is exemplary for such studies by using concurrently ecosystem physiology, eddy tower, ecosystem manipulations and modeling. The team has a long experience within UE (Medeflu, Carboeuroflux, Carboeurope-IP, Mind, Ecovoc, IMECC initiative, Carboextreme) and French ANR (Drought+) projects. We contributed in the former UE project Lucifer on landscape history and in developing models for fire-prone MTEs.

Brief description of the legal entity
The Centre for Functional and Evolutive Ecology of the CNRS (CEFE CNRS) is one of the largest research European labs in plant and animal ecology and evolution and a class A+ lab for the French research ministry. As a mixed unit (UMR 5175), it involves researchers and staff from seven institutes including the 3 Montpellier universities. The main component from CNRS represents more than 80% of the total permanent staff that is on average 150 persons.
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Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Short name
PIK
Web
http://www.pik-potsdam.de/

Country
Germany
Role
In WP 1.2, PIK will analyze meteorological conditions leading to fire extremes in the Mediterranean region and apply the regional climate model CCLM. PIK will integrate the knowledge gained on historic trends in landscape change and fire occurrence to adopt the dynamic vegetation-fire model LPJmL-SPITFIRE in WP 1.3. It will assess the climate and land use change impacts on fire regimes, vegetation, new fire-prone areas and resulting ecosystem vulnerability in Europe and North Africa in WP 2.2 and 2.3.

Work packages
Members
Experience
UB is an expert in regional climate modeling in Europe with a strong focus on extremes. This includes model evaluation, generation of high-resolution climate scenarios and ensemble simulations for climatic extremes with the regional climate model CCLM as in the Consortium runs. KT has a long experience in global fire modeling for DGVMs, climate change research, and is co-author of the SPITFIRE model. KT has worked on vulnerability assessment (FP5 ATEAM project), and on analysis of fire extremes in Portugal (FP6 ALARM). She was a module and WP leader at the beginning of the FP6 IP Fire-PARADOX and worked on drivers of human-caused fire ignitions.

Brief description of the legal entity
The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), founded in 1992, is a government-funded research institute that works on global change, climate impacts and sustainable development. PIK has around 205 employees and in 2008 its core funding was about 8 million Euros plus additional project funds from external agencies. PIK plays an active and often leading role in activities such as the IPCC and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). As a member of the European Climate Forum (ECF), the Institute is in exchange with decision makers from the economy, politics and civil society. It also advises regional, national and global organizations and authorities.
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Foundation of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Short name
FFCUL
Web
http://www.fc.ul.pt/fcul_eng/

Country
Portugal
Role
1) Mapping large fire scars and assigning dates to them. 2) Vegetation recovery after large fires events. 3) Classification of typical weather patterns leading to fires. 4) Assessment of impact on fire regimes of background spring conditions versus summer heat wave events. 5) Fitting extreme distributions to fire sizes. Work will be done in: WP 1.1, WP 1.2, WP 2.2, WP 3.2, WP 4.1

Work packages
Members
Experience
FFCUL has been deeply involved since the early 1990s in European projects related with the Mediterranean basin. R. Trigo and C. DaCamara participated in MEDALUS I and MEDALUS II, two projects focused on desertification and drought monitoring, extreme impacts and climate change scenarios. Since 2006 R. Trigo sits in the Steering Committee of MedCLIVAR (Mediterranean Climate Variability and Predictability), an ESF funded Programme. Additionally he participates (PI) in the FP6 project CIRCE (Climate Change and Impact Research: the Mediterranean Environment). Since early 2008 he has been involved in the COST Action 733 on “Harmonisation and Applications of Weather Types Classifications for European Regions”. Since its beginning in 1999, FFCUL has been involved in the Satellite Application Facility for Land Surface Analysis (LSA SAF), an R&D and operational project sponsored by EUMETSAT. From 1998 to 2005, C DaCamara was Scientific Coordinator of the LSA SAF; he is currently responsible for the development of two fire-related products; Risk of Fire Management and Fire Detection and Monitoring. C. DaCamara was Vice-President of the Portuguese Meteorological Service (2003-2004) and was part of the «Advisory Committee for Space» of the European Commission for the FP6 and of EUMETSAT’s MSG Biosphere Working Group (MBWG).

Brief description of the legal entity
The work will be performed by the Geophysical Centre (CGUL) of the University of Lisbon (FFCUL), a research group established in 1976 that covers the fields of Solid Earth Physics, Meteorology and Natural Hazards. Currently there are 35 Researchers (with PhD) working in FFCUL and a similar number of post-graduates students. The scientific output of FFCUL has been rated as Excellent by an international panel.
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European Commission, Directorate General Joint Research Centre – Institute for Environment and Sustainability

Short name
JRC-IES
Web
http://ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

Country
Belgium
Role
Analysis of past trends of forest fires and role of the main driving factors (especially climate, but also land cover and socio-economic factors) at the EUMed Scale. Future projections assessments based on the relationships established analyzing historical data series. Baseline for the analysis will be the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) datasets such as the EU Fire Database, EFFIS fire perimeters, ERA40 derived long term fire danger assessment, and other environmental and socio-economic EU-wide assessment products which are stored at the JRC. Work will be done in WP 1.1, WP 1.2, WP 1.3, WP 2.2, WP 3.3, WP 4.1 and WP 4.5.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The Forest Action of the JRC-IES is responsible for the development and operation of the European Forest Fire Information System providing the EC Services and EU Member States with information on forest fires in Europe since the year 2000.

Brief description of the legal entity
The Joint Research Centre provides customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. The Forest Action within the Institute for Environment and Sustainability provides scientific and technical support including the production of risk indicators and damage maps for the protection of citizens against forest fires. Within the forest fire activities, tools are being developed for the assessment of forest fire risk, detection of active fires, burnt area mapping and evaluation of forest fire damages. Remotely sensed data are processed and used in conjunction with ancillary data using GIS techniques to evaluate forest fire damages in the EU Mediterranean region.
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Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici

Short name
CMCC
Web
http://www.cmcc.it/

Country
Italy
Role
CMCC is responsible of Module 1 and 2, Wp leader in WP 1.2 and 2.1, and deputy leader in WP3.3. In addition is a participant in several WPs. Three of its Divisions will be involved: Impacts on Agriculture, Forest, and Natural Ecosystems (IAFENT), Applications and Scenarios (ANS) and Climate Impacts and Policies (CIP)

Work packages
Members
Experience
CMCC is the IPCC Italian focal point. C. Carraro is Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group 3. D. Spano has been appointed to the Italian Department of Civil Protection – National Committee on Natural Hazards. CMCC is partner of EU projects as CIRCE, BRIDGE, CLARIS, MY OCEAN, SPLASH.

Brief description of the legal entity
The Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC) is the Italian research centre on climate science and policy. Its activities focus on the development and applications of models of climate dynamics, climate change impacts, social economic impact assessment and of cost benefit assessment of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. The CMCC thus produces numerical simulations of global and regional models of climate change (ANS division), analyses land use changes, deforestation and afforestation dynamics, water and ecosystem transformations (IAFENT division) and finally investigates the interlinkages of these dimensions with social economic activities. This both in terms of anthropogenic impacts on climate change and the environment and of climatic impact on human development. For that concerning economists and social scientists: the CIP division (climate impact and policy) is specifically devoted to the investigation of the social economic dimension of climate change: its research focuses on the economic assessment of climate change impacts, on the production of social-economically based emission scenarios and on the cost benefit assessment of mitigation and adaptation policies.
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Università di Sassari-Dip. di Economia e Sistemi Arborei

Short name
UNISS
Web
http://www.uniss.it/

Country
Italy
Role
UNISS participates at the project with these main topics: statistical analysis on fire regimes in Sardinia in the last decades, analysis of historical fire trends; mapping of most recurrent burned areas also with GIS tools (WP11); monitoring changes in vegetation status in relation to drought; modeling of fuel dryness conditions across European sites, evaluation and characterization of main fire emissions by laboratory measurements and modeling (WP23); characterizing and mapping vegetation structure (WP24); recovering techniques for the most important Mediterranean species living in fire-prone areas, enclosing WUI (WP32); Sardinia is also proposed as study site area (WP42).

Work packages
Members
Experience
UNISS works on: fire trend analysis, relationship with weather/climate; field and laboratory monitoring of fuel properties, fire ecology, biodiversity and recovering techniques, fuel models, fire propagation and danger modeling, smoke emissions. Main research project about fire and Climate Change: VULCAN (2001-2004); INCREASE (2009-2012). UNISS also participated at two National Research Projects about wildland fires.

Brief description of the legal entity
UNISS works since ’60 on biology and physiology of tree and shrub species. From 1990 research activities were concentrated more on ecophysiology, agro meteorology, biodiversity, fire ecology and management, fire propagation and danger modeling.
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Institut National de Recherche en Sciences et Technologies pour L’Environnement et L’Agriculture

Short name
IRSTEA
Web
http://www.irstea.fr

Country
France
Role
The EMAX (Ecosystèmes Méditerrannéens et Risques AiX-en-Provence) team will have a leading role in 3 work packages: on the analysis of fire patterns disentangling climate and landscape effects (co-leader WP13), assessment of the fires risks at the WUI (leader of WP24) and the vulnerability of fire prone ecosystems (co-leader 3.2).

Work packages

WP 1.1
WP 1.3
WP 2.1
WP 2.2
WP 2.3
WP 2.4
WP 3.2
WP 4.5

Members

Roche, Philip
Lampin, Corinne
Thomas Curt

Experience
In the last five years, the EMAX team has been involved in many regional, national (ANR INC, Drought+, Forest-Focus IRISE) and European level research programs (FP6-FIREPARADOX, FP7-EBONE) on Ecology and fire risks.

Brief description of the legal entity
Irstea is a research organization which, since more than 30 years, works on major issues of a responsible agriculture and territories sustainable planning, water management and related risks, drought, floods, inundations, the biodiversity and complex ecosystems study in their interrelation with human activities. Multidisciplinary research, appraisal and support to «agri-environmental» public policies «, partnership with territorial authorities and actors of the economic world, such are the characteristics of Irstea, qualified «Carnot Institute». In the continuity of the research model of Cemagref, every day our engineers and our researchers put a lot of themselves into their mission : to take up the challenge of global change comprehension for a sustainable and environmentally friendly development.
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National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Ecology and Systematics

Short name
UoA
Web
http://www.uoa.gr/

Country
Greece
Role
Member of the steering committee, Co-leader of Module 1, NKUA will participate in WP11, WP12 and WP13. As for Module 2, NKUA will participate in WP22 and WP23, while in Module 3 it will participate in WP32. Finally, it will participate in the 4th Module of the project, and specifically in WP41, 42, 44 and 45.

Work packages

WP 1.1
WP 1.2
WP 2.2
WP 2.3
WP 3.2
WP 4.1
WP 4.2
WP 4.4
WP 4.5

Members

Arianoutsou, Margarita

Experience
The Department of Ecology of the University of Athens is a leading European team in forest fire ecology. Its reputation was formed by its participation in a large number of EC and nationally funded projects performing key role in this area.

Brief description of the legal entity
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens is the oldest Highest Level Educational Institution of Greece. The Faculty of Biology belongs to the School of Sciences. Department of Ecology and Systematics is responsible for training more 150 undergraduate students and about 30 postgraduate students in all aspects of Ecology and Systematics. Prof. Margarita Arianoutsou has established the Research Unit of Terrestrial Ecology since 1991. The Unit consists of three post-doctoral research associates, one computer expert, 6 Ph.D. candidates and a number of graduating students (preparing a First Degree Dissertation) and it is supported by a couple of technicians.
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University of Ioannina

Short name
UoI
Web
http://www.uoi.gr/gr/

Country
Greece
Role
The University of Ioannina includes 17 academic Departments which altogether number 13,523 undergraduate students. A number of organized postgraduate study programmes are on offer that combine taught and research elements both at Master’s and Doctoral level. Approximately 1,300 students are involved in full-time study mode progressing to a Master’s degree, while 2,217 students are currently pursuing their Doctoral degree.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The UIO team has been working in the field of remote sensing and GIS with special emphasis on mapping of burned areas and fire occurrence patterns for the last 15 years. The members of the team have participated in national and European related projects (MEGAFIRES, FUEGO, SPREAD, EUFIRELAB) and have several publications in journals, books, and international conferences. Besides remote sensing and GIS, their research focuses on ecology, landscape ecology, spatial analysis, and geostatistics.

Brief description of the legal entity
The University of Ioannina includes 17 academic Departments which altogether number 13,523 undergraduate students. A number of organized postgraduate study programmes are on offer that combine taught and research elements both at Master’s and Doctoral level. Approximately 1,300 students are involved in full-time study mode progressing to a Master’s degree, while 2,217 students are currently pursuing their Doctoral degree.
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University of Lund, Dep. Physical Geography and Ecosystem Analysis

Short name
ULUND
Web
http://www.lu.se/lund-university

Country
Sweden
Role
LPJ-GUESS is a well-evaluated tool to explore the coupled dynamics of climate, ecosystems and land use under future greenhouse forcing and socioeconomic development. It includes the Spitfire module to model fire occurrence and -spread based on weather conditions, ignition sources and vegetation fuel available for burning. Forest gap-model features in LPJ-GUESS make it particularly suitable to study climate-fire-vegetation interactions on ecosystem to landscape scale. LUND will work in WPs 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 to: A) adopt the model’s vegetation parameterization to the Mediterranean/North African environment using site observations available to FUME; B) contribute analyses of potential natural vegetation cover change in response to climate change, specifically concentrating on the local to regional scale; C) provide future and past fire simulations and interactions with ecological vegetation features on landscape level, for instance the shift from fire intolerant towards fire prone vegetation in new fire prone areas.

Work packages
Members
Experience
AA leads the INES group on land-surface interactions in the climate system; in 2009 she is visiting full professor at Helsinki University Physics Department. Her research group was initiated by a 6th FP Marie Curie Excellence grant. AA coordinates the work package on fire-climate-carbon cycle interactions in the FP6 STREP CarboAfrica and is co-leader of the Integration/modeling unit of LUCCI. In CARBO-Africa she was responsible to adopt the Spitfire module in LPJ-GUESS to be applied for the African continent.

Brief description of the legal entity
INES has a long track record in multidisciplinary studies of climate and environmental change impacts on terrestrial ecosystems and vice versa. The department coordinates the Linnaeus Excellence Centre for Studies of Carbon Cycle and Climate Interactions (LUCCI), funded by the Swedish Research Council. The modeling group at INES is developing the ecosystem modeling framework LPJ-GUESS. At present 15 senior researchers, post-docs and doctoral students contribute to model development at INES, of a total number of 66 staff.
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Universidad de Cantabria

Short name
UC
Web
http://www.unican.es/

Country
Spain
Role
UC will participate in those tasks related to weather and climate and their relationship with fire: WP1.2, WP2.1 and WP4.1 (leader of this task), with participation of personnel from the Dept. Applied Mathematics and the Institute of Physics IFCA. IFCA is a mixed institute of Cantabria University and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); thus CSIC will act as a related party in this project.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The research group in data mining and climate research (www.meteo.unican.es) conducts research on different topics related to weather forecast and climate change. In particular, this group is specialized in the production of regional climate change scenarios using statistical downscaling techniques to project low-resolution outputs from global models to high-resolution related surface variables. This group is a partner of the 6th FP ENSEMBLES project, participating in tasks dealing with climate change regional projection and connection with end-uses; for instance, this group is responsible of the data access and downscaling portals.

Brief description of the legal entity
The University of Cantabria (UC) is one of the leading research universities in Spain. With an overall of 1,098 professors and researchers (485 Ph.D. permanent staff), 28% women, UC has been involved in the European Framework Programmes (FP) from the beginning of these actions. The UC Research Groups have participated in 27 European Projects in the Fifth FP and 16 the Sixth FP, in fields such as information society technologies, genomics and biotechnology, high energy physics, climate research, etc.
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Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

Short name
IRD
Web
http://en.ird.fr/

Country
France
Role
The leader of the IRD group will be the leader of WP 2.3. IRD will be involved in modules 1 and 2. Mod. 1: land-use/land cover change and fire mapping (WP 11, 12) will be done at the regional and local level in France and Northern Africa, and social aspect will be developed in Tunisia. The group will also participate in the attribution exercise (WP13). Mod. 2: participation in projecting fire danger and risk at large and local scales in building and using models and datasets (WP22) and in conducting experiments to determine vegetation vulnerabilities in the field in Tunisia and in the greenhouse in Montpellier (WP23, 24). IRD will contribute with the Northern African partners for data collection and field experiments.

Work packages

WP 1.1
WP 1.2
WP 1.3
WP 2.1
WP 2.2
WP 2.3
WP 4.2
WP 4.5

Members

Mouillot, Florent

Experience
F. Mouillot has been conducting fire related studies since 10 years from the local to landscape and global level, and participated in the European project LUCIFER in 1997-2000. He is now involved in climate change projects with engineer A. Rocheteau both on the experimental side and regional modeling side. He is also leading a French project with Tunisian and Algerian Partners since 2007 about Mediterranean ecosystems vulnerability in Northern Africa, including social aspects lead by H. Nouri in Tunisia.

Brief description of the legal entity
IRD is a public French research institution linked to both the science and research minister and the minister of foreign Affairs. It is composed of ca. 2200 employees, 43% of them working for scientific cooperation in 22 developing countries where IRD installed permanent offices (as in Tunis-Tunisia, and Rabat-Morocco). IRD has a department of natural resources which includes activities in agronomy and ecosystems.
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Finnish Meteorological Institute

Short name
FMI
Web
http://ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/en/

Country
Finland
Role
The main task of the research team in FUME is, in co-operation with other partners, to assess the temporal and spatial variation of forest fires in the boreal forests in Europe by taking into account the climatological and socioeconomic changes that have taken place. Further, the aim is to examine the influence of climate change on forest fire risk in the boreal forest in Europe and in similar type of conditions elsewhere in the world.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The research team is responsible of the development and fire risk estimation methods that are used routinely in Finland. There have been a number of national projects where the fire risk in the boreal forests has been examined. Team has close contacts with forest research institutes. As a partner in the EU funded projects PREVIEW and ENSEMBLES the team has conducted European scale forest fire research and gained experience that is very relevant also from the point of this project.

Brief description of the legal entity
FMI is a governmental institute for atmospheric research and weather services. It has over 500 full-time employees and about 200 scientists. The main research topics are atmospheric modeling, global change, space research and remote sensing techniques and applications. Climate change research includes development of climate scenarios, research on impacts of climate change, analysis of observed climate variations and trends, stratospheric ozone research, measurements of trace gases and particulate compounds in the atmosphere, and modeling of their fluxes.
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National Research Council Italy-Inst. of Biometeorology

Short name
CNR-IBIMET
Web
http://server.ss.ibimet.cnr.it/

Country
Italy
Role
IBIMET role will be focused in fuel management, fire behavior evaluation and fire fighting optimization. IBIMET is Leader of WP3.1, where gaps and difficulties in the fire fighting operational procedures will be investigated, to identify possible adjustments to face toward climate change and extreme conditions. In the others WPs IBIMET contribution will be finalized to support the investigation on fuel characteristics evolution (WP1.1/WP2.2) and fire behaviors changes (WP1.2/WP2.3), related also to landscape modifications. Moreover IBIMET will manage test sites in North Mediterranean forestry ecosystems.

Work packages

WP 1.1
WP 1.2
WP 2.2
WP 2.3
WP 3.1
WP 4.5

Members

Arca, Bachisio
Conese, Claudio

Experience
IBIMET has been involved as coordinator and/or Principal Partner in several projects related to natural resources management and forest fires prevention, management and restoration: E.U.-PRIMAVERA (FP5), E.U. – ISOLE (FP5) – E.U. – FORFAIT (FP5) – E.U. – SPREAD (FP5), E.U. – FIRELAB (FP6) – E.U. – VULCAN (FP6) – E.U. – INCREASE (FP7) – ITALSCAR ESA-ESRIN GMES – RISKEOS ESA-ESRIN – D.S.S. for forest fire risk evaluation .

Brief description of the legal entity
The IBIMET, established in 1980, at present counts about 160 people staff. Activities in environment and territory resources monitoring and management concern research, technology applications and training, focused on the studies of innovative methods (remote sensing, environmental modeling, climatic measurements) for data collection, dbase organizations and different ecosystem’s aspects investigations at different time and spatial scales.
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Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza – International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies

Short name
IAMZ-CIHEAM
Web
http://www.iamz.ciheam.org/

Country
Spain
Role
IAMZ will be in charge of implementing Training activities in WP4.3,. Two one-week training courses will be organized at two different levels: one for scientists and another one for development decision-makers and technicians. The programmes of the courses will be defined in ad-hoc meetings with the steering committee of the project.

Work packages
Members
Experience
IAMZ holds longstanding experience in the organisation of training activities in subject-matters related to this proposal. Protection against forest fire (1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001), International cooperation programmes for forest fire control in the Mediterranean region (2004), Soil restoration after fire (1992, 1996), Soil degradation in Mediterranean agricultural regions: impact and corrective measures (1997, 2002), Ecological engineering applied to environmental restoration in Mediterranean areas (2004), Techniques for mitigating desertification processes in Mediterranean countries (2000), Land restoration to combat desertification: innovative approaches, quality control and project evaluation (2005). Some of the courses of IAMZ are organized within the framework of EU funded projects as REACTION – Restoration Actions to Combat Desertification in the Northern Mediterranean; contract EVK2-CT2002-80025, FP6 – Global Change and Ecosystems; and MEDROPLAN – Mediterranean Drought Preparedness and Mitigation Planning, EU MedaWater. Two other courses have been scheduled for the 2009-2010 academic year within the framework of the DeSurvey Project (A Surveillance System for Assessing and Monitoring of Desertification; FP6, Global Change and Ecosystems ).

Brief description of the legal entity
IAMZ is one of the four Institutes endowing the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), founded in 1962 as Intergovernmental Organization under the auspices of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation Development). The main objectives of CIHEAM are post-graduate education and promotion of research in the fields of agriculture and natural resources. Presently, CIHEAM comprises thirteen member countries: Albania, Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey. IAMZ-CIHEAM works in partnership with the specialist national institutions as well as in cooperation with the international organizations active in the Region (e.g., ICARDA, FAO, OADA, etc.).
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Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Short name
CSIC
Web
http://www.csic.es/

Country
Spain
Role
CSIC will contribute to Modules 1 and 2 working at two different spatial scales (Euro-Mediterranean and local). For this scales CSIC will work in the characterization and analysis of fire regimens using fire statistics and remote sensing data (Task 1.1.1. and 1.1.3.), the compilation and analysis (standardization and spatial mapping) of socio-economic data (Task 1.1.2), and the analysis of the interactions between socio-economic factors and the fire regime (Task 1.1.4. and 1.1.5.) and his relative influence in fire occurrence (WP 1.3). In Module 2 CSIC will participate in WP 2.1 applying predictive models to simulate future change scenarios in relation with anthropogenic factors and in WP 2.2 analyzing potential impacts of change scenarios simulated in WP 2.1 on fire risk conditions within our local study area. CSIC will also contribute to data and management activities in Module 4 and will be leader of WP 1.3.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The CSIC team has a long experience in environmental applications of remote sensing as well as in the interactions of society with the geographic environment. CSIC have been involved in several European (MINERVE, MEGAFIRES, INFLAME, FUEGO, SPREAD and EUFIRELAB), USA-NASA, national and regional projects since 1992. Our activity has been related to burnt area mapping using remote sensing data at global and local scales and socio-economic analysis of forest fire risk. Predictive models of fire occurrence associated to human activity and the analysis of population attitude towards fire.

Brief description of the legal entity
CSIC is the largest public multidisciplinary research organisation in Spain. It has a staff of more than 10000 employees, among these 3202 scientists and about 3802 pre and postdoctoral researchers. CSIC has considerable experience in both participating and managing R&D projects and training grants. The CSIC has been the 5th organisation in Europe in 6th Framework Programme.
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Tecnologias y Servicios Agrarios, S.A.

Short name
TRAGSATEC
Web
http://www.tragsa.es/

Country
Spain
Role
TRAGSATEC will participate in Task 2.4. Risk at the WUI in relation to climate and socioeconomic change and Task 3.1 Managing risks under future climate and multiple extremes. TRAGSATEC participation in Task 2.4. will be cooperation in analyzing possible future changes in RUI due either to socioeconomic or climate change scenarios. TRAGSATEC can contribute with a Human Settlements Map of Spain which have been classified as sited in forest land, crop land, or if they are urban, isolated buildings, small settlements. TRAGSATEC participation in Task 3.1 will be analyzing changes needed in current protection against fire plans, tools or methodologies, and assessing or identifying changes needed in protection and prevention resources in order to adapt them to future socioeconomic and climate change scenarios.

Work packages
Members
Experience
TRAGSATEC has participated in different fire protection projects at different scales. At a national level, for example, the Mutual Aid Forest Fire Plan of Spain and Portugal, or the Fire Prevention Plan for the Rail Network. At a regional level, fire protection plans have been issued for Madrid, Valencia, Murcia, Cantabria, La Rioja, Andalucía and Balearic isles. At the local scale, has developed fire protection plans for Montgó Natural Park (Alicante), Ordesa National Park (Aragon), Upper Tajo River (Castilla – La Mancha) and for several military practice fields (Cádiz, Badajoz, Madrid, Guadalajara, Zaragoza, Sevilla)

Brief description of the legal entity
Tecnologías y Servicios Agrarios, S.A. (TRAGSATEC) is a State owned Spanish company that provides technical assistance in agricultural infrastructure, rural development and forestry and environmental activities, from studies and projects to technical services that require territorial implantation. From the beginning, on the 1st of April in 1990, it develops all kind of activities, works and services, at a national and international level (as technical assistance, planning, projects, R&D activities, consulter, etc) related with agriculture, forestry, environment, nature protection and green urban patrimony. To carry out these works, the company counts on the most advanced technology and human resources, continuously improving.
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Instituto Superior de Agronomia de Lisboa

Short name
ISA
Web
http://www.isa.utl.pt/

Country
Portugal
Role
1) Complete and analyze long-term (30+ years) Landsat-based annual fire atlas for Portugal. 2) Estimate pyrogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols for Portugal. 3) Estimate post-fire vegetation recovery and model growth rates as a function of environmental co-variates. 4) Analyze roles of fuels and weather as determinants of the fire regime. 5) Collaborate in the assessment and improvement of regional process-based fire models. DEF/ISA will participate in WP 1.1, 1.2 and 2.2.

Work packages
Members
Experience
DEF/ISA has been involved in wildfire research since the late 1980s, namely through participation in several national and international research projects and field campaigns. JMC Pereira has supervised, or is supervising about 20 doctoral students in topics dealing with pyrogeography, remote sensing and biomass burning.

Brief description of the legal entity
The Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Instituto Superior de Agronomia (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa) has a long experience of involvement in national and European-funded research projects. The Department’s Center for Forest Studies has the largest ISI-indexed publications output of any forestry/agriculture Portuguese research unit.
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Centre for European Policy Studies

Short name
CEPS
Web

Home

Country
Belgium
Role
The CEPS team will be involved in WP 3.3: Managing societal response to future fire risk conditions (co-leader). The main contribution of the research team will be to Task 3.3.2 – Implications of European policies/strategies/initiatives under future fire risk conditions. Initially, the feasibility of possible policy responses to forest fires on various levels and their relevance to EU policy areas will be assessed, paying attention to impacts on carbon markets. Further, the extent to which these responses should be incorporated into the EU adaptation framework will be examined.

Work packages
Members
Experience
Previous experience relevant to the work CEPS has demonstrated its capacity to manage or participate in networks and large research projects or studies, also in the field of climate change. For the Adaptation and Mitigation strategies for Europe (ADAM) project CEPS has produced a number of research reports and hosted seminars (FP 6, 2006-2009). CEPS leads or participates in five work packages of the Security of Energy considering its uncertainty, risk and economic implications (SECURE) project (FP 7, 2008-2010). There CEPS applies its expertise and its access to a network of stakeholders to assessing the long-term impact of energy, transport, environment and climate change policy in the EU. It participates in The fiscal implications of climate change adaptation (CLIMAD) study (DG ECFIN). In the context of the Global Sectoral Approaches study (DG ENTR), CEPS is a member of a consortium, led by the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) that analyses the potential of sectoral approaches to address climate change. Among other, the study examines the role of forests in a post-2012 climate change regime. In collaboration with a partner (MISTRA’s CLIPORE) CEPS has launched a series of seminars in Brussels under the European Climate Platform (ECP).

Brief description of the legal entity
Founded in Brussels in 1983, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) is among the most authoritative think tanks with a role as an independent analyst and critic of European policy. CEPS’s core expertise is the conduct of policy research on European affairs and the broad dissemination of its findings through a regular flow of publications and events. CEPS also serves as a leading forum for debate among all stakeholders in the European policy process.
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Université Ferhat Abbas de Sétif

Short name
UFAS
Web
http://www.univ-setif.dz/

Country
Algeria
Role
The leader of the UFAS group will be the leader of a party of WP 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 3.3. Specifically, the group will contribute to 1.1.1 as a reconstruction of fire history in Algeria, 1.1.2 for changes in forest cover and socio economic data, 1.2.1 relationship between fire, weather and climate and fire if we can get climate data for Algeria, 1.3.3 for the social aspect and may be the 3.2 in restoring ecosystems in Algeria.

Work packages
Members
Experience
A. Madoui is interested in the ecology of fire and the usage of fire in ecosystemic management. In Algeria, he has been working on the ecology of fire for the last 10 years. He managed to describe the impact of fires on vegetation (especially Pinus halepensis, Quercus rotundifolia) and on Quercus suber in progress. In Quebec, he studies the spatial configuration of fires and cuts in the boreal forest by using Landsat imagery and GIS. He has been a partner of a French project with Tunisian Partner since 2007 about Mediterranean ecosystems vulnerability in Northern Africa leaded by Dr. Mouillot.

Brief description of the legal entity
The Ferhat Abbas University of Sétif (Algeria) opened in 1978 and is organized around six faculties and 22 departments. Approximately 50,000 students are enrolled at the University, composed of 1243 employees who work for education and research with an international cooperation. UFAS accounts for 4 doctoral schools. The research is articulated on 34 laboratories and 254 projects. Engineering, natural and earth sciences are the most relevant subjects at the university. The Departments of biological sciences and agronomy have the main role to involve the studies on agronomy and forest ecosystems which provide an insight to current environmental issues.
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National Institute for Research in Rural Engineering, Water and Forest

Short name
INRGREF
Web
http://www.nkk.affrc.go.jp

Country
Tunisia
Role
INRGREF contributes to the national strategy of research in the field of water, forest, land management, protection and conservation of natural resources. The research themes made in the institute and linked with the project subject concern essentially forest fire, climatic changes and social and economical evolution effects on the fire risk, the post fire regeneration dynamics of vegetation and the prescribed burning.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The main part of the research activities in the INRGREF are in direct relation with the management of forest ecosystems. This institute has a large experience in the conservation of the natural resources. The most important objective of the research group is to develop different strategies for protection of forest ecosystems according to human activities and to use meteorological models to estimate the fire risk in the Mediterranean ecosystems. The INRGREF is developing, in cooperation with Europeans and North African countries, various programs of forest protection against fire and prescribed burning notably: – European project FIREPARADOX: FP6-018505 and – COST Action FP0701, Post-Fire Forest Management in Southern Europe. In addition, the research team has participated in some projects related to land restoration and forest fires.

Brief description of the legal entity
The National Institute for Research in Rural Engineering, Water and Forest (INRGREF) is a public research institution affiliated under the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of Tunisia.
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National Centre for Climate and Meteorological Research

Short name
NCCMR

Country
Morocco
Role
NCCMR will be involved in WP 1.1, by providing information on cartography of fire scars in the site area. In WP 1.2 we will collaborate by providing meteorological and forest fires data and by analyzing the climate and weather relationships. In WP2.1 downscaling at the selected sites will be carried out and in WP 2.2 calculations of impacts of climate change on fire danger indices in risk.

Work packages
Members
Experience
The head of the NCCMR is Vice-Chair of the WG I of the IPCC, and has experience in climate change. The participating institution is involved in observing and studying climate, forest fires and land-use land cover processes relevant for forest fires.

Brief description of the legal entity
The National Centre for Climate and Meteorological Research of Morocco is a public institution devoted to the investigation of meteorology and climate, including climate change. The NCCMR will coordinate the participation of other national bodies, such as the Agro-meteorology Service, the High Commissariat of Forest and the Tele-Detection Service.
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Southwest Anatolia Forest Research Institute

Short name
SAFRI

Country
Turkey
Role
SAFRI can take office in some parts of Module 1. Land-use/land cover change and fire mapping (WP1.1 and WP1.3) will be done at Serik and Manavgat localities in Antalya-Turkey (Tasks of 1.1.1., 1.1.2., 1.1.3.). Historical socio-economic changes and their relations with current fire regime will also be defined for the same localities (Task of 1.3.2).

Work packages
Members
Experience
The team leader who focuses on vegetation ecology is now leading a joint project titled “Analysis of the succession and structural changes during vegetation regeneration on the site of Pinus brutia forests” with Slovenian Institute of Biology. He also has studies in some projects of SAFRI related to silviculture and vegetation ecology, both as a leader or participant. One of the members of our team, Ufuk Cosgun, is an expert on socioeconomic issues of Turkish and especially Mediterranean Forestry. Other member, Cumhur Güngöroğlu, is an expert on remote sensing and Biotope mapping.

Brief description of the legal entity
SAFRI is promoted to identify the problems encountered in forestry practices and do scientific researches on related topics, transfer the results and the knowledge to forest management by publications and seminars. It consist of 25 researchers working on different topics such as, silviculture, forest management, forest ecology, forest tree breeding, forest socio-economic etc.
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South African National Biodiversity Institute

Short name
SANBI
Web
http://www.sanbi.org/

Country
South Africa
Role
SANBI will be involved in all work topics to some extent, particularly by contributing with additional approaches to identify the synoptic state of regional climate conducive to large fires, possibly by using Self-organizing maps (SOMS), by experimenting with drought treatments in a range of post fire vegetation ages and in reciprocal transplants along altitudinal gradients, and through contributing to the development of predictive models of land use and fire change. This will be done in WPs 1.2, 2.2 and 2.3.

Work packages
Members
Experience
Dr. Midgley has deep experience in developing a predictive understanding climate change impacts on ecosystems, their related vulnerability, and developing adaptive conservation strategies. He develops dynamic modeling approaches that incorporate population demographic and ecosystem processes to project species responses to climate change. His research group models ecosystem dynamic responses to climate change, including fire, that modifies species/ecosystem response to climate change, and carries out field experiments on climate change (warming enclosures, drought treatments and reciprocal transplants).

Brief description of the legal entity
SANBI is a National Institute promulgated under the National Environment Act of South Africa (as of 1st September 2004) for promoting the sustainable use and conservation of the biodiversity of South Africa. Within SANBI, the Climate Change and BioAdaptation Division develops and implements coordinated research programmes that aim to increase understanding biodiversity responses to key pressures, such as climate change and other biological threats.
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USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Fire Laboratory at Riverside

Short name
USDA-PSRS
Web
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/rfl/

Country
United States of America
Role
Dr. González-Cabán will participate in all three WPs related to the social and economic response to changes in fire regime. In WP 3.1 will collaborate to determine the costs associated to changes in planning. The experience of the valuation of the system for fire management in Spain will be a basis from which operate. In WP 3.2 will collaborate with strategies aiming at reducing fire risk, while maintaining other values. The experience gained in studies carried out in California with the costing of various alternatives, will be a valuable one to compare. In WP 3.3, is where the core involvement is expected in regard to the economic implications. To this end, he will interact with the partners involved in this WP and provide input from experience gained in the USA.

Work packages
Members
Experience
Dr. González Cabán has been working on fire economics research since 1980 when developing the Forest Service Fire Economics Evaluation System. He has also worked in development of the first economic evaluation system for fire management programs in Spain, completed in 2007. For the past 15 years he has been working on valuation of nonmarket goods and services produced from forest lands and affected by wildfires. Nonmarket values are a significant contributor to the total cost of wildfires. In order to determine the true total economic cost of wildfires nonmarket values must be accounted for. Additionally, he has been working on fire management decision making processes in large fires and fire managers risk attitudes and its effects on wildfire costs.

Brief description of the legal entity
The Forest Fire Laboratory, Riverside, CA is a field station of the Pacific Southwest Research Station, US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. This facility specializes in forest fires related research, covering the following areas: fire management, fire meteorology, fire behavior, fire effects and prescribed burning; also atmospheric deposition and recreation research. Fire related research has been conducted continuously on this facility since its establishment in 1963.
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Northern Arizona University

Short name
NAU
Web
http://home.nau.edu/

Country
United States of America
Role
Participate in WP 2.2 with NKUA to address research questions relating to (1) fire ecology of cool Mediterranean Pinus nigra forests, (2) assess structural and fuel characteristics of old P. nigra stands, (3) determine whether historical fire regime attributes can be reconstructed from fire-scarred trees and age distributions, and (4) applying information about the historical fire adaptations of the old forest to modern management planning in the context of changing climate and fire hazard ( WP3.2.2 with CEAM and NKUA)

Work packages
Members
Experience
Twenty years experience in fire ecology research in the USA, Mexico, and recently in Europe, applying dendrochronology and modeling to the reconstruction of historical fire regimes and forest/fuel structures. Extensive experimental studies, collaboration with a wide variety of interdisciplinary and international research teams.

Brief description of the legal entity
Northern Arizona University is a comprehensive public institution serving over 20,000 students with academic degrees from the Bachelors to Doctoral levels. The School of Forestry includes 24 faculty members, 227 undergraduate and 84 graduate students. The School is nationally and internationally prominent in forest ecology and wildland fire. The Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) integrates research with management applications for restoration of dry forested ecosystems. Peter Fulé is the Managing Director of ERI, which has 27 professional staff members (ecologists, foresters, GIS) and supports 30 undergraduate and 12 graduate students.
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University of Arizona

Short name
UARIZ
Web
http://www.arizona.edu/

Country
United States of America
Role
The University of Arizona team will collaborate with our European partners on the basis of the exchange of expertise and approaches to knowledge transfer and community engagement. Specifically, we will leverage a major multi-organization effort called “Firescape” to introduce alternative knowledge transfer approaches to FUME. Firescape is an initiative to move from beyond tactical fire management to a landscape-scale fire, forest management, and restoration. This approach is being designed and tested within a fire prone and populated region in southeastern Arizona, USA. Based on participatory research, it employs a bi-directional exchange of knowledge, facilitated and collaborative knowledge transfer, and the use of multi-criteria decision support tools (WALTER http://walter.arizona.edu) to move from traditional science dissemination to an engagement that actively links research and practice.

Work packages
Members
Experience
Barron Orr is a specialist in knowledge transfer. He is one of the three original “Geospatial Extension Specialists” in the U.S. affiliated with NASA, NOAA and USDA working to bridge the science and technology gap between Earth systems science and technology innovations and the needs of potential users through the Cooperative Extension translational science network. Don Falk’s research focuses on multi-scale fire history, fire-climate relationships, fire ecology, dendroecology, and landscape-scale restoration ecology. Thomas Swetnam studies disturbances and the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems. He uses dendrochronology (tree rings) in combination with other natural archives and documentary sources to reconstruct the histories of fire, insect outbreaks, human land uses, and climate.

Brief description of the legal entity
Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 3308, Tucson AZ 85722-3308, USA. The University of Arizona (UAriz) is a U.S. land-grant state educational institution, established in 1885 under law passed in 1862. It is the leading public research university in the American Southwest, producing more than $530 million in annual research and other learning opportunities for 35,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Through Cooperative Extension, UAriz extends its research and resources to enrich communities around the state and around the world.
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US Geological Service, Western Ecological Research Center

Short name
USGS-WERC
Web
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/

Country
United States of America
Role
USGS-WERC will participate in Mod. 1, 2 and 3 activities by bringing the expertise available at our group from California on the topics being researched.

Work packages
Members
Experience
Jon Keeley has over 250 publications in national and international scientific journals and books dealing with research on the ecological impacts of wildfires as well as historical changes in fire regimes in shrubland and forested ecosystems and their impact on invasive non-native plants.

Brief description of the legal entity
U.S. Department of the Interior agency
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University of Wollongong, Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires

Short name
UWO-CERMB
Web
http://www.uow.edu.au/science/biol/icb/cermb.html

Country
Australia
Role
CERMB can contribute an Australian perspective to the three main FUME research themes, including specific results from northern, tropical savannas and south eastern forests and woodlands. This would include: landscape analysis of fire regime patterns and sensitivity to management (i.e. 1 – historical change); simulation modeling of sensitivity of fire regimes to climate change and management (i.e. 2 – predictions of future change), and; modeling of risk management strategies and cost benefit analyses (i.e. 3 – mitigation/adaptation). These contributions would reflect both existing and planned, future projects.

Work packages
Members
Experience
CERMB staff and collaborators have wide-ranging experience in research on fire ecology and fire management in varied Australian ecosystems.

Brief description of the legal entity
The CERMB is a joint venture between the University of Wollongong, the State Government of New South Wales (NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change and the NSW Rural Fire Service). The aim is to improve our understanding of risks posed by fire regimes to key management values (e.g. people, property, biodiversity, air quality, catchments, carbon sequestration). CERMB is involved in local and national assessments of fire regimes and biodiversity responses to climate change. Response of fire regimes to management and climate change is a key CERMB research priority. Multi-disciplinary approaches to this problem are being used (e.g. fire weather and fire area analyses, simulation modeling, vegetation gradient analyses). CERMB is also involved in other research on fire risk: e.g. fuel, emissions, smoke and carbon, plus development of management systems.
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Universidad Austral de Chile

Short name
UACH
Web
http://www.uach.cl/

Country
Chile
Role
UACH will be involved in Module 1 and 3. In Module 1, we will develop WP1.1 by assessing historical fire regime using tree-ring proxy data in the Andes of south-central Chile. Also, we will evaluate landscape changes in the coastal range of south-central Chile together with assessing the impact of fires. Further, in WP 1.2 we will explore the relationship between fire and climate variability. In Module 3, we will focus in WP 3.2 by examining the restoration of large burned areas of Araucaria-Nothofagus forests.

Work packages
Members
Experience
This scientific team has ample experience in studies of fire ecology, landscape change, and climate variability in Mediterranean and temperate forests in Chile. Dr. González has been the P.I. and Co-PI of different research grants (NGS, IFS, FUND. ANDES, FORECOS) related with fire ecology and climate variability. Dr. Lara has been the P.I. of key research grants (National Forest and Vegetation Inventory and Mapping (1994 -1997); FORECOS Millennium Scientific Nucleus “Forest Ecosystemic Services to Aquatic Systems under Climatic Fluctuations” (2002 – 2006). Dr. Le Quesne has been P.I. of projects related with the reconstruction of millennial climate variability from tree-ring chronologies for central Chile (FONDECYT).

Brief description of the legal entity
The University Austral de Chile (UACH), founded in 1954 as a private corporation, is one of the most important institution of higher education in south-central Chile. It enjoys international recognition for its academic excellence offering more than 40 different undergraduate programs and 30 graduates programs. It attends a population of c. 10.000 students with a permanent staff of c. 800 faculties.