Wildfire risk is becoming an increasingly urgent challenge for Mediterranean regions. CMCC researcher Maria Mirto, scientific coordinator of the OFIDIAPlus project, discussed the issue in an interview with Rai’s regional newscast TGR Puglia.
Puglia’s 2026 wildfire season started in mid-May. According to Nicola Lopane, Director of Civil Protection of the Puglia Region, fires increased by 34%, from 23 to 32 interventions per day, peaking at 81 on 6 July, with almost 15,000 hectares burned. Across Europe, over 80% of forest fires occur in the Mediterranean region.
“It is a region with summers already naturally hot and dry, and vegetation growing in direct contact with homes and infrastructure: what we call the wildland-urban interface. When prolonged drought and extreme temperatures are added, conditions become critical,” Mirto explained.
Speaking about heatwaves, Mirto noted that “from 2008 to 2023, across Greece, Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, the factor most closely associated with megafires was the intensity of heatwaves, rather than their duration.”
Large fires also contribute to climate change by releasing carbon stored in forests. OFIDIAPlus is working on this challenge, developing satellite-based systems to map these emissions at national and regional scale. As Mirto explained: “The problem has been measuring it. We are developing satellite-based systems that map these emissions at national and regional scale.”
