Climate Risk Centre: ‘Belgium not prepared for rise in number of wildfires’
Over the next twenty years, the number of wildfires will also rise in Belgium. The country is not prepared for that challenge, warned the Belgian Climate Risk Assessment Centre (Cerac) to Flemish public broadcaster VRT. Urgent investments are needed in fire fighting, warning systems and scientific research.
Huge forest fires like the current ones in Los Angeles will not happen in Belgium any time soon as the country has too little forest and its nature is too fragmented. But scientists do expect more wildfires in Belgium in the future, as climate change will lead to more heat and drought waves, creating the ideal breeding ground for such fires.
Such wildfires can also cause a lot of damage in Belgium. In 2011, for example, 2,000 hectares went up in flames at the Kalmthoutse Heide, a nature reserve situated on both sides of the Belgian-Dutch border – with the Belgian part situated in the north of Antwerp province. “That disaster triggered a lot,” Cerac director Luc Bas told VRT. “The National Crisis Centre focused more on the problem and in Antwerp, a network for wildfires was set up.”
But according to Cerac, new investments are necessary, because the current capacity risks being insufficient in the future. “Within 15 to 20 years, wildfires will become more frequent and more severe,” stated the centre. “Several fires may also rage simultaneously. The current capacity will then be insufficient to fight those fires.”
Concretely, Cerac is pointing to the need for investments in scientific research on past wildfires, for example. But there are also investments needed in warning systems, computer models that calculate future risks, and the alignment of all existing initiatives.
The centre is currently working on a risk analysis on wildfires in Belgium, together with the National Geographic Institute. This should map the knowledge and preparedness to fight those fires. There are no data yet, for instance, that map the danger to buildings or even entire neighbourhoods. One particular challenge concerns the resolution of satellite images, which is still too large for the Belgian scale to detect wildfires in time.
Illustration © BELGA PHOTO CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP
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