We present a new hierarchical fuel classification system with a total of 85 fuels that is useful for preventing fire risk at different spatial scales. Based on this, we developed a European fuel map (1 km resolution) using land cover datasets, biogeographic datasets, and bioclimatic modelling. We validated the map by comparing it to high-resolution data, obtaining high overall accuracy. Finally, we developed a crosswalk for standard fuel models as a first assignment of fuel parameters.

We show that ecological value might be reduced by 50 % due to fire perturbation in ecosystems that have not developed in the presence of fire and/or that present changes in the fire regime. The biomes most affected are tropical and subtropical forests, tundra, and mangroves. Integration of biotic and abiotic fire regime and regeneration factors resulted in a powerful way to map ecological vulnerability to fire and develop assessments to generate adaptation plans of management in forest masses.

The article presents a database of reference sites for the validation of burned area products. We have compiled 2661 reference files from different international projects. The paper describes the methods used to generate and standardize the data. The Burned Area Reference Data (BARD) is publicly available and will facilitate the arduous task of validating burned area algorithms.

Weather, humans, and vegetation control the occurrence of fires. In this study we find that global fire–vegetation models underestimate the strong increase of burned area with higher previous-season plant productivity in comparison to satellite-derived relationships.