In 2022, over 68,000 hectares of forest burned. Sicily the most affected, fires increase in the North
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In 2022, our territory was affected by fires of medium and large size (over one hectare) for more than 68,500 hectares (ha), an area almost equal to the size of the Gran Paradiso National Park. Even if this surface represents less than half of what was burned the previous year (40%), the figure is still higher than the average value of the areas burned annually in Italy in the last 10 years, between 2012 and 2021 (55,000 ha). Of what burned in 2022, more than 20% consisted of forest ecosystems, in particular deciduous broad-leaved trees (oak and beech woods, around 6,800 ha), evergreen broad-leaved trees (holm oaks and Mediterranean maquis, around 4,700 ha) and evergreen coniferous trees (Mediterranean pine forests, almost 2,700 ha). Exceptionally, in 2022, a forested portion with alpine deciduous coniferous trees was also affected (larch woods, 16 ha).
Climate
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by Giacomo Talignani
The data are provided by Ispra as part of the observations and monitoring of the impacts of medium and large fires on ecosystems and are provided by the European forest fires information system of the European Copernicus emergency programme, and processed by ispra with machine learning systems for the recognition of the ecosystems involved in the fires. The ratio between the total area covered by fire (effis data) and the forest area involved (ispra data) has remained not too far from 20% in the last five years.
At the regional level, in Sicily over 50% of the national total of burned territory (more than 35,000 Ha), and it was also the region that suffered the most damage in terms of burned forest area (4,437 Ha). Forest covers were also affected in Calabria (more than 1800 ha), Lazio (more than 1300 ha), Campania and Tuscany (almost 1100 ha), Piedmont and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (about 1000 ha). Compared to 2021, the area affected by fires decreased overall in the central-southern and southern regions and on the major islands, while it increased in the central-northern and northern regions. 38% of the forest ecosystems affected by fire falls within the national system of protected areas.
Climate
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by Sara Carmignani
In 2022 the protected areas most affected by fires were: the special area of conservation (zsc) “woods of Piazza Armerina” in the province of Enna in Sicily, already significantly affected by fires also in 2021 (almost 900 ha of which about 500 pine forests ), the regional nature reserve “Riserva naturale orientata rossomanno-grottascura-bellia” also in the province of Enna (also here almost 900 ha, mainly pine forests). The special conservation area “Carso Trieste e Gorizia” (about 400 ha almost entirely deciduous hardwoods) and the ZSC “complex monte bosco e scorace” in the province of Trapani (about 400 ha) were also affected.
The record
Copernicus data: “frightening” heat and drought in Europe in 2022
by Cristina Nadotti
The main events, in terms of extension in wooded areas, occurred in the first days of July in the province of Enna (municipalities of Aidone, Piazza Armerina – more than 900 ha), in the third ten days of July in the province of Lucca (Camaiore, Massarosa, Lucca, 750 ha) and in the province of Gorizia and the Trieste-Slovenian Karst (Doberdò del lago, Duino, Monfalcone, more than 400 ha), in mid-August in the province of Trapani (Buseto Palizzolo, Castellammare di Stabia, about 450 has). In the second half of March, an episode occurred in the province of Belluno (municipalities of Longarone and Ponte nelle Alpi, which affected just over 400 ha.
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