Incorporating the visibility analysis of fire lookouts for old-growth wood fire risk reduction in the Mediterranean island of Sardinia

Sardinia is subject to many fire events each year. A visibility analysis of old-growth woods from the network of fire lookouts was performed; the visibility of fires from lookouts and the level of old-growthness of woods were then implemented to the common information of wildfire hazard maps to obtain a vulnerability map. The results show that 78% of Sardinian old-growth woods are visible from lookouts and that 99% of them fall into the network of protected areas. However, old-growth woods are unevenly protected from fires, with visibility coverages ranging from 40% in the Sulcis macro-area to 100% in others. Compared with the wildfire hazard map, the vulnerability map led to different outputs in terms of fire protection prioritization, allowing better risk assessment and improved fire control planning. The integration of other parameters into wildfire hazard maps is a replicable focus-oriented approach that might be tested in other contexts.