PREFER FP7 project for the management of the pre- and post-fire phases: presentation of the products.

The PREFER FP7 project aims at responding to major fire prevention needs in Southern Europe. The Mediterranean area is systematically affected by uncontrolled forest fires with large impact on ecosystems, soil erosion, slope instability, desertification trends, and local economies as a whole, with a negative mid-to-long term prospect because of Climate Change. In this scenario, the need to improve the information and the intelligence support to forest fire prevention is widely recognized to be relevant. Fire prevention is still the most cost-effective strategy when compared to firefighting and extinguishing that are costly, local, and triggered only in response to already ongoing crises. The PREFER project intends to contribute to responding to such a pragmatic need of Southern Europe’s forests by: 1) providing timely multi-scale and multi-payload information products based on exploitation of all available spaceborne sensors; 2) offering a portfolio of EO products focused both on Pre-crisis and Post-crisis forest fire emergency cycle in the EU Mediterranean area; 3) preparing the exploitation of new spaceborne sensors available by 2020 (e.g.: Sentinels) and 4) contributing to the definition of User requirements for the new EO missions. The paper is devoted to illustrate the results of the R&D activity and the results of the preliminary validation of the project products.