Development of a catalogue of damage in Portuguese forest associated with extreme extratropical cyclones

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 814; p. 151948
• Main Authors: Ribeiro, Stéphanie Lopes, Gonçalves, Ana, Cascarejo, Irene, Liberato, Margarida Lopes Rodrigues, Fonseca, Teresa Fidalgo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 25-03-2022
• Subjects: Cyclonic Storms; Extreme events; Extreme windstorms; Forest resources impact; Forests; Portugal; Trees; Wind; Portugal; Forest resources impact; Extreme events; Extreme windstorms
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151948

In European forests, extreme wind events associated with severe extratropical cyclones are considered the main abiotic agent of forest vulnerability, leading to high economic losses in forests due to damage caused by the uprooting of trees and trunk breaks. Despite the importance recognized to severe cyclones and associated extreme phenomena, the impact on forest stocks is not always properly reported, leading to underestimation in the perception of losses, with direct consequences on forest governance decisions. This is particularly true in countries where other agents traditionally have a high impact, such as the countries under the influence of the Mediterranean, where wildfire is a recurrent menace with devastating effects. This work characterizes the situation observed in Portugal and presents the methodology followed to obtain information about forest damages and the procedure to identify the extreme extratropical cyclones responsible for those damages. As an example, available information and the recording of damage occurring in the Portuguese forest in winter 2017–2018 are presented and discussed. The study shows how difficult and demanding it is to obtain past information about the damage. In addition, there is high uncertainty about the precise identification of the event that caused the damage, as field records often occur several days or even weeks after the storm. To reduce the constraints, it is proposed to use a model whose skeleton of information has been designed to obtain useful information from traditional registries. The proposed model is useful for the characterization of losses and to support national policies to reduce the impact of damage associated with extreme wind events. The design of the catalogue can be used for recording information at the stand scale level by stakeholders and ensure compatibility with international databases for updating information purposes.
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•Extreme wind events have a negative impact on the Portuguese forest.•Inaccessible damage information causes misperception of real impact of the events.•Preparation of a data record that ensures greater accuracy of the information obtained.•Damage catalogue can be adopted at national level and linked to international databases.