Historical fire occurrence on the territory Historical wildland fires in the Guadiato Valley (Cordova)

Abstract

This paper aims at making a reconstruction of the historical records of wildland fires in the territory of the Guadiato Valley and the municipality of Cordova, as well as at analysing the influence of fire on the evolution of forest landscape. The research method is based on the use of historical documental sources and bibliographic ones, palaeoecological data and field work, all from a multi-scale approach regarding space and time. The evolution of fire regimes in the study area is determined, also analysing the presence of fire as a tool for land management and as a risk factor, thorough the Holocene and particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting from these aspects, the paper goes deeper into explaining the character and dynamics of vegetal landscape, into the evolution of the territory’s vulnerability to the risk of wildland fires, and to the prospective study of fire behaviour.