International Workshop on "Improving dispatching for forest fire control"

The workshop was prepared by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICh), Crete, Greece, in close cooperation with the General Secretariat for Civil Protection of Greece, with the help and financial support of the Civil Protection and Environmental Accidents Unit of the European Commission. It was held in the Conference Center of MAICh, on December 6-8, 2001.

The objective of the workshop was to improve our knowledge and prediction capability on the effectiveness of the firefighting forces that a dispatching center sends to a forest fire.

Early-on MAICh established an organizing committee which set the organizational directions for the seminar. It also assigned the scientific coordination of the workshop to Dr. Gavriil Xanthopoulos, a well known expert on forest fires who has significant experience on such matters. This scheme secured good participation in the seminar by European Civil Protection representatives and a high level of presentations and information exchange as some well known experts in the field were invited to deliver lectures. Also, a significant number of Greek Fire Service officers were offered the opportunity to participate in the workshop.

The workshop itself was a success as judged by the comments of the participants. One of its most important results, underlining its success and its usefulness, is the preparation of a significant volume of proceedings which includes nearly all of the presentations delivered. Furthermore, it includes the analysis and results of a questionnaire (134k) circulated among the workshop participants, which draws an interesting picture of the current situation in regard to decision making for forest fire dispatching in the European Union countries. Finally, it includes the conclusions (32k) that were drawn during the final discussion of the participants. This material is certain to provide valuable inputs for future EU policies and future research directions.