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European Forest Fire Information System

European Forest Fire Information System - EFFIS

The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) has been established by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Directorate General for Environment (DG ENV) of the European Commission (EC) to support the services in charge of the protection of forests against fires in the EU countries, and also to provide the EC services and the European Parliament with information on forest fires in Europe.

EFFIS addresses forest fires in Europe in a comprehensive way, providing EU level assessments during both pre-fire and post-fire phases, thus supporting fire prevention, preparedness, fire fighting and post-fire evaluations.

The core of EFFIS consists of a scientific and technical infrastructure at the JRC doing research on forest fires and operating a web based platform. In addition EFFIS is supported by a network of Experts on Forest Fires from 22 EU countries that meet regularly with the EC services.

Other than the on-line web based system, a huge EU fire database is maintained within EFFIS; furthermore, reports on forest fires in Europe are produced yearly.

Along the main fire season (June to September), maps of forecasted fire danger are emailed daily to forest services and civil protection services of EU, fire statistics for the on going fire season are exchanged quarterly and newsletters are issued monthly. In addition the EFFIS team at JRC responds to ad hoc requests of specific assessments during major forest fire crisis in EU.

Currently a total of 9 researchers and technicians at JRC are involved fully or part time in EFFIS development and operation.