CLIMADA is a probabilistic model designed to assess the risk and severity of natural disasters, including wildfires, considering the intensity of the event, the exposure, and the vulnerability. As part of his internship at Terradue, Francesco Samassa extended the method described in Lüthi (2021) to quickly assess with CLIMADA the economic damage of wildfires over different historical events.
The selected case studies included: Pedrógão Grande 2017 in Portugal, Camp Fire 2018 in the US, Australia’s Black Summer (2019-2020), and Central Chile wildfire of 2017. The analysis used hotspot data from FIRMS, burned area data from the MCD64A1 dataset, and economic exposure data from LitPop. Additionally, economic damage records from the EM-DAT database were used to calibrate the model and validate CLIMADA’s estimation for each event.
One of CLIMADA’s core strengths lies in its flexibility and global applicability, relying on widely accessible, and often open-source data. During the internship, a prototype of a user-friendly service was developed to make CLIMADA easier to use. With this tool,users can input basic information about a wildfire, such as its location and date, and receive an estimate of the economic damage, the burned area, and maps showing exposure, hazard, and impact. A “confidence level” is also included to indicate potential uncertainty or incomplete data.
CLIMADA service workflow
CLIMADA proves to be a promising tool for estimating wildfire-related economic impacts. While there is room for further refinement, its ability to deliver quick and globally relevant insights makes it a valuable support system for both public and private decision-making in disaster risk management and mitigation planning.
Credits: This work was carried out by Francesco Samassa as part of his internship at Terradue under the topic: “Modelling for economic losses due to wildfires events”. It also contributed to his MSc thesis in Environmental Economics at University and Polytechnic of Turin.
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