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Wildland fuel distribution and characteristics are critical components for the development of a national integrated wildfire management strategy. This study presents a methodological framework for the mapping of fuels in Mediterranean ecosystems in the different levels of a new fuel hierarchical classification scheme, using a spectral–spatial approach based on Sentinel-2 timeseries and auxiliary thematic maps. Furthermore, in the context of this research, a novel approach is proposed for separating Mediterranean shrubland vegetation into three broad height categories, using Sentinel-2 images, landscape variables, and climatic data. Two areas in Greece, namely Attica and Euboea, with major wildfire events over the past 3 years were selected as the study areas. The mapping methodology was designed to consist of three complementary mapping processes, each for the identification of specific types of fuels (i.e., urban, agricultural, and vegetation). The results are validated in a two-step approach for different levels of the classification scheme. The results for the first level display an overall accuracy of 88% and kappa of 0.84, while for the second level, overall accuracy was 71.64% and kappa was 0.68. Our research demonstrates the capacity to map fuel types with promising accuracy at different depths, highlighting a viable method that can be potentially exploited for the large-scale fuel mapping of Mediterranean biomes at a national level.

This paper presents a review of concepts related to wildfire risk assessment, including the determination of fire ignition and propagation (fire danger), the extent to which fire may spatially overlap with valued assets (exposure), and the potential losses and resilience to those losses (vulnerability). This is followed by a brief discussion of how these concepts can be integrated and connected to mitigation and adaptation efforts. We then review operational fire risk systems in place in various parts of the world. Finally, we propose an integrated fire risk system being developed under the FirEUrisk European project, as an example of how the different risk components (including danger, exposure and vulnerability) can be generated and combined into synthetic risk indices to provide a more comprehensive wildfire risk assessment, but also to consider where and on what variables reduction efforts should be stressed and to envisage policies to be better adapted to future fire regimes. Climate and socio-economic changes entail that wildfires are becoming even more a critical environmental hazard; extreme fires are observed in many areas of the world that regularly experience fire, yet fire activity is also increasing in areas where wildfires were previously rare. To mitigate the negative impacts of fire, those responsible for managing risk must leverage the information available through the risk assessment process, along with an improved understanding on how the various components of risk can be targeted to improve and optimize the many strategies for mitigation and adaptation to an increasing fire risk.