Professional paper
Forest Fires and Physical Models
Željko Španjol
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Katica Biljaković
; Institut za fiziku Zagreb
Roman Rosavec
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Damir Dominko
; Institut za fiziku Zagreb
Damir Barčić
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Damir Starešinić
; Institut za fiziku Zagreb
Abstract
Croatia is relatively rich in forests; forested areas account for 36 % of the total territory of the country. However, forest fires occurring in the Adriatic region of Croatia are a serious threat to natural resources, since they decrease biological diversity and exert a negative impact on landscape variety. The complexity of the problem requires the involvement of a number of scientific fields, such as forestry, geology, biology, meteorology and physics.
Physics is known to successfully detect some basic principles of occurrence and activity in the material world, which has a broad scope of uses beyond the boundaries of physics alone. Physics, in cooperation with other scientific disciplines, discovers and investigates ways and patterns in which complexities are manifested, thus opening the door to an array of applications. “Correlations in Complex Systems: from Physics to Biotechnology” is the title of an interdisciplinary program financed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, which, among others, integrates scientific approaches of physics and forestry to the study of forest fires.
This paper provides some concepts of forest fires that are specific for each scientific discipline. It also explores the possibilities of their interaction and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the solution of vital issues concerning forest fires and their prevention.
Keywords
complexity; fire; forestry; physics; the Adriatic region
Hrčak ID:
25855
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2008.
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