Funded under the Interreg Italy-France Maritime Program 2014-2020, MED-Star (May 2019-July 2022) aimed to improve the capacity of public institutions to manage and prevent the growing fire risk, due to climate change, in the cooperation area. To achieve this, the project strengthened fire prediction, prevention, and suppression capacities, particularly for areas with high human presence and/or wildlife interest. The cross-border approach enabled the integration of public risk management systems and implementation of coordination between administrations, while taking advantage of the latest products from the applied research activities of the scientific partners.
MED-Star is also the coordinating project for the activities of the four simple projects (INTERMED, MEDCOOPFIRE, MED FORESTE and MED PSS) funded under the same call, whose pilot actions and small infrastructures that have been implemented are closely linked and complementary to the results of MED-Star.
The project
MED-Star involved the territory of Liguria, Sardinia and Tuscany Regions for Italy, Corsica and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region for France. In these areas, it developed innovative governance models with the implementation of joint action plans (JAPs) for forecasting, prevention monitoring, fire management and on adaptation to climate change, as well as had the objective of transferring methodologies for monitoring and forecasting from the scientific world to public institutions.
The project then created a joint monitoring and coordination system for fire fighting.
Finally, MED-Star carried out communication, training and awareness-raising actions aimed at both the public (population living in the areas of interest, tourists, agricultural operators…) and forest fire-fighting operators, to improve the capacity to intervene and respond to fire emergencies, also using the innovative technological tools provided as outputs of the project.
Results
- Five joint action plans
- A cross-border data sharing platform
- Expansion of monitoring networks
- Enhancement of modeling applications for fire risk forecasting
- A platform for the testing and application of operational fire intervention models
CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution
Within MED-Star project, CIMA Research Foundation was responsible for the design and implementation of a “Cross-Border Data Sharing Platform” that made available to the relevant institutions a standardized package of information, monitoring data and maps to be used in the operational phases of forecasting, prevention and active fight against forest fires in the project area.
The main objective of this initiative was to transfer into operation all the research results conducted over the past two decades in the area of forest fires, providing a suitable tool for each entity in relation to its specific expertise.