The regional councilor for agriculture and forestry, Gianluca Galloopened the work of the conference on the AIB 2025 fire -fighting level “Burn is to lose, knowing is to protect. Regional wooded fire prevention plan: tools, strategies and teamwork for 2025”.
The initiative, which took place today in the headquarters of the regional citadel in Catanzaro, took part in representatives of important scientific and operational realities, confirming the national and international scope of the Calabrian strategy: University of Calabria – Department of Physics, for the physical modeling of fires and the use of data in prevention; Cima Foundation, center of excellence specialized in the forecast of fires and risk management; Dream Italia, a training center for international relevance, engaged in the sustainable and integrated management of the territory; National body of the firefighters, who addressed the specific theme of urban-rural interface fires; Calabria Verde Company, regional operational structure for the fight against forest fires; Department of Civil Protection of the Calabria Region, with a focus on the role of civil protection associations in combating forest fires, with particular reference to national twinning, strategic and irreplaceable resource in the emergency phase.
Councilor Gallo has focused on the positive results of the action, fielding by the Region in recent years, contained in the AIB plane, noting that, compared to the average of the period 2004-2023, the number of fire has been less than 40%lower, while the total surfaces crossed by the reduced fire by about 37%. By comparing the data compared to the average of the last five years, the number of fires has decreased by 19% compared to the average and the total surface traveled by fires and reduced by about 33%.
“As part of the zero tolerance strategy – Gallo remarked -, in particular with the model of struggle founded on the use of the drones impressed by the president Occhiuto and the regional council, the priority action to face the fire emergency has concerned, in recent years, prevention. The results of the past years have been important because Calabria has been reported to the national and international community as one of the most virtuous regions since, despite the fire area. Increased, in Calabria, on the other hand, there has been a drastic decrease both of the number of fires and the incended hectares. processing with artificial intelligence.
“This year – continued the commissioner Gallo – there will be further improvements and advancements against forest fires because there are many new investments but also because we have created a sector of the Euo Forestry that deals with 12 months a year, 24 hours a day, of forest fire. Masted by Calabria Verde, by the Fire Brigade and the Forestry Carabinieri for all actions not only of prevention, but also of repression and intervention which, daily, we put on the field we will intervene with a work of awareness also in the relationship with citizens and with the municipal administrations. Come on, by placing a clear and ambitious goal: further raising the level of prevention, technological innovation and active management of the territory “.
The plan was illustrated in detail by the regional forest fireRaffaele Mangiardiwho focused on the evolution of the system: from the monitoring platform to the predictive bulletin, from risk maps to the territorial network.
“Plan 2025 – he explained – focuses decisively on the use of integrated territorial databases, satellite images, thermal and meteorological surveys, to support a predictive prevention capable of promptly identifying the most risk situations and orienting preventive interventions. Alongside the enhancement of automatic monitoring with drones, the data analysis nucleus and the experimental daily bulletin of daily danger, the plan gives great centrality to the plan. Fuel management: through targeted interventions to reduce vegetation, calibrated on the analyzes developed through the analysis of the available databases, it is aimed at containing the risk of fire and safeguarding the interface territories between woods and inhabited areas. AIB 2025 – Finally, Mangiardi underlined – We have put technologies, data and people to a system, transforming the emergency into prevention and intervention in knowledge.
The event then continued with an integrated technical session on tools, strategies and analysis and with an operational session: territory, volunteering and repression in which, among others, the general manager of the regional civil protection, Domenico Costarella and the general manager of Calabria Verde, Giuseppe Oliva, took part.
The conference ended with a round table in which they will take part: the general manager of the forestry, Domenico Pallaria; The Vicar Regional Director of the Calabria Fire Brigade, Giuseppe Bennardo; the general manager Arpacal, Michelangelo Iannoneand the director of the Multheist Functional Center, Eugenio Filice; the extraordinary commissioner of the single reclamation consortium, Giacomo Giovinazzo.