FOREST FIRE HAZARD MODEL DEFINITION FOR LOCAL LAND USE (TUSCANY REGION) C. Conese 3 , L. Bonora 1 , M. Romani 1 , E. Checcacci 1 and E. Tesi 2 1 National Research Council - Institute of Biometeorology (CNR- IBIMET), Via Madonna del Piano,10 – 50019 - Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze (Italy) l.bonora@ibimet.cnr.it 2 Department of Environmental Science and Technology in Forestry (DISTAF), University of Florence, Via S. Bonaventura 13 – 50145 Firenze, Italy. enrico.tesi@unifi.it 3 Center for computer Science in Agricolture – Accademia dei Georgofili (Ce.S.I.A.) c/o Ibimet-CNR Via Madonna del Piano,10 – 50019 - Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze (Italy) c.conese@ibimet.cnr.it Abstract In the present work, a forest fire hazard model is presented in order to evaluate the probability of the occurrence of forest fires in a given region. This probability is expressed in terms of hazard level of that particular region. The model groups territorial and meteorological (all) parameters in order to calculate different levels of indexes, the combination of which constitutes the final Fire Hazard Index. The present work describes the structure of the model and the parameters that are processed using values selected to represent spatial and seasonal variability. Two separated hazards, static and dynamic, are generated. The Static Fire Hazard (or Land Fire Hazard) refers to all factors that do not change or change very slowly in time and includes natural features such as morphology (slope and aspect), land use and vegetation cover and the infrastructural factor, which is obtained considering any structure connected with the human activities: urban areas and road network. The Dynamic Hazard takes into account all parameters showing short-term variations. There are two main factors: climatic and microclimatic conditions and vegetation status. All these parameters are combined and as result of the elaboration, we obtain the Final Fire Hazard Index (FHI), in raster format, which can be superimposed on a topographic regional map. Successively In order to consider also the variable represented by the “social aspect”, the FHI is merged with a statistical analysis of fire occurrence, to produce maps on a municipal level to show a possible correlation between environmental and anthropic factors. The present research is based on a simple database (maps, layers, data and measurements) made up of the information collected for the institutional activities of a public administration. The objective of the present work is to perform a real-time routine for the meteo data, able to update the FHI maps with the frequency necessary to give a decision support tool to optimize the firefighting activities.