Vulnerabilities

The number of wildfires in the Czech Republic has increased by about 70% in the period 1991-2015 in comparison with the 1971-1990 period. Throughout the country, extreme occurrences of wildfires were due to a combination of drought and heat waves. The main reason for the statistically significant increase in the frequency of wildfires is the ongoing climate change: the combination of drought and heat waves (lasting more than 6 days) is the most frequent cause of vegetation fires. In addition, population growth at the wildland-urban interface also causes a greater frequency of wildfires. The vast majority of all vegetation fires are caused humans and only part of the fires have a natural cause (most often lightning). Large forest fires (> 1000 ha) did not occur during the studied period. On average, 89.5% of all vegetation fires in the Czech Republic were recorded in the countryside and only 10.5% in forests during the 1971-2015 period; higher levels of human activity in the countryside explain a greater frequency of vegetation fires there than in forests (2).

Wildfire risk has increased in the Czech Republic, especially in April - June during the 1956 - 2015 period. Wildfire risk is expected to increase over the coming decades. While the risk of wildfires during 1956 - 2015 was mostly in the lowlands and peri-urban zones of the lowest-lying towns, the risk will increase more dramatically between 2020 and 2080 for nature reserves and peri-urban zones at higher elevations and will remain high in the lowland areas and peri-urban zones of the largest cities (1).

References

The references below are cited in full in a separate map 'References'. Please click here if you are looking for the full references for the Czech Republic.

1. Trnka et al. (2020)
2. Mozny et al. (2021)