Centro Ibérico para la Investigación y Lucha contra Incendios Forestales (INTERREG-POCTEP-0753_CILIFO_5_E)
For some years now, fire risk and emergency management have been very serious threats to the territory of Andalusia/Portugal, especially in the border area. In fact, the progressive abandonment of cultivation and grazing has allowed the development of combustible and permanent biomass which can generate large forest fires which have the particularity of being rapid, powerful and difficult to stop. In addition to the high risk of fire associated with the physical characteristics of the territory, the difficulties due to the border situation between two states have so far prevented this risk from being reduced. There are serious obstacles to obtaining data, exchanging information, inadequate anticipation and management plans; and a difficulty in coordinating between emergency services, elements which limit the effectiveness of the intervention and place it in a situation of great legal uncertainty.
Through this project, it is proposed to create CILIFO (Iberian Centre for Research and the Fight against Forest Fires) in the province of Huelva, preferably located in an already built site, and which can maintain its functionality once the project has been completed, as well as to establish subheadings and strategic antennas which are estimated, with CILIFO being the administrative headquarters and promoting training and research in the different laboratories and centres of the participating partners. The Andalusian provinces in which this project has being develop are Huelva, Sevilla, Córdoba and Cádiz.
The aim is for CILIFO to become a reference point for forest fires throughout the Iberian Peninsula and Europe, and more specifically for:
– Forest fire fighting operations in Spain and Portugal.
– Research, information and dissemination entities on forest fires.
– The population in general and schoolchildren in particular.
In this sense, CILIFO will be established as a technical-scientific Research and Dissemination Centre, a Technology Centre specialised in forest fires and forest management that coordinates research and disseminates it. CILIFO is an opportunity to lay the foundations so that, after three years of economic viability, the centre can be sustainable or almost self-financing. A CILIFO with a vocation for international leadership will be committed to different lines of research, aspiring to European funds, and to the incorporation of companies and administrations, leading, or at least participating, in the research being developed in this sector in Europe through the different public calls, or through private sponsorship, with the vision of management-research so necessary to ensure the transfer of R&D&i results.
Objetivos generales
- To strengthen and unite cooperation, working procedures and training between the Forest Fire Prevention and Extinction mechanisms in the cooperation area of the Euroregion Alentejo-Algarve-Andalusia.
- To promote the creation of lasting and quality employment in the area; to reduce the economic cost of fires by creating a rural economy linked to the landscape.
- To improve the response capacity to forest fires of the administrations and authorities involved in fighting them in the three participating regions.
Papel de la Universidad de Córdoba
The University of Córdoba will participate in the following project activities:- A0 – Project preparation
- A2 – Training, accreditation and joint protocols
- A4 – Development and Innovation Programme
- A5 – Management and Coordination
- A6 – Communication
Investigador principal: Francisco Rodríguez y Silva
E-mail: ir1rosif@uco.es
Página web del proyecto: http://cilifo.eu/