Researchers from the Institute of Information and Communications Technologies (ITACA) at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), in collaboration with the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), have developed a methodology that enables more accurate estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from large Mediterranean forest fires.
The method has been applied to the 2022 Bejís fire (Castellón), which affected 18,538 hectares. According to the study, the fire had an impact on global warming equivalent to 626,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂), a figure higher than the emissions generated in a year by the city of Valencia and close to 0.22 per cent of Spain’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
The study, published in the scientific journal «Fire«, was developed by Helena van den Berg Sesma, Edgar Lorenzo-Sáez, Victoria Lerma-Arce, and José Vicente Oliver-Villanueva from ITACA-UPV, together with Mauricio Acuna from the Natural Resources Institute Finland.
