1. Forest fires and air pollution in Portugal
Ana Isabel Miranda, Célia Alves, Alexandra Monteiro
Department of Environment and Planning
University of Aveiro

2. Pedrogão Grande, 17 June 2017

3. Aveiro, 12 August 2016
* dados provisórios constantes na base de dados do SGIF no dia 16 de outubro de 2015

4. Air Quality in Aveiro comes down to the worst level
Jornal de Notícias, 11 August 2016
Air Quality in Aveiro comes down to the worst level
2016 – 11 August

5. PM10 concentration values in the air quality monitoring station (daily averages)

6. Wildfires 2016 August From 8 August 2016 To 15 August 2016 NUT3
Entre Douro e Vouga
Total burnt area (ha)
26593

7. Portugal – summer of 2003
03/08/2003
(MODIS NASA/GSFC)

8. August 2003 Differences between PM10 levels (μg m-3) simulated with a model considering and not considering wildfires emissions
(Martins et al., 2012)

9. For each fire larger than 100 ha
forest fire emissions - August 2003
For each fire larger than 100 ha
PM10
NOx
(Martins et al., 2012)

10. Emission inventories, climate change models, atmospheric photochemical models, and source apportionment models use emission profiles which should reflect the regional characteristics of biofuels
Objective:
Quantify emission factors for a wide range of particulate phase compounds (organics, metals, and ions), as well for gaseous pollutants, released by wildfires

11. Field equipment to sample smoke plumes
Tri-pod high-volume atmospheric particulate matter sampler
Bags to collect gaseous compounds

12. Analytical methodologies

13. Results

14. Coimbra, August 2005
21 August
Burnt area 6102 ha

15. Chemical Transport Model (CTM) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
multi-scale approach
Chemical Transport Model (CTM)
LOTOS-EUROS
1000 m
1000 m
FLUENT
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

16. air quality modeling: PM10
11 p.m., 21 August 2005
High PM10 values, indicating a high background value, probably from the WUI fires and the nocturnal atmospheric stability. But, it’s still possible to identify the typical urban hot-spot in the city centre.

17. air quality modeling: PM10
11 a.m., 22 August 2005
Hourly PM10 concentration values very high (400 µg m-3).
Hot-spots resulting from road traffic emissions typically found along the Avenue are “diluted” by the much higher concentration levels from forest fires smoke.
Direction
Speed

18. Can a fireman be exposed to serious air pollution levels?
Exposure measurements
Health indicators

19. Results (firefighter 4 in 2008, July 16th)
Instantaneous concentration values were frequently very high.
The knowledge on the CO concentration peaks to which firefighters are exposed is very important due to the risk of asphyxia.
CO peak limit is exceeded three times.
(Miranda et al., 2012)

20. Effects of smoke on human health
exhaled CO
% carboxy-haemoglobin

21. Forest fires… in the future…
ΔFWI
Fire weather risk in 2100
Higher
risk
substantial increase on area burned and number of fires under future climate
an earlier and longer fire season would be expected under future climatic scenario
August
(Miranda et al., 1994;
Carvalho et al., 2008, 2010, 2011)

22. The operational JRC EFFIS dispersion module
(ARIA-UAVR)
Validation of the modelling system results and contribution to its improvement

23. Thank you for your attention!!!
Universidade de Aveiro
Thank you for your attention!!!