The wildland-urban interface and the relationship with wildfires in the municipalities of Campina Grande do Sul and Quatro Barras, Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

Campina Grande do Sul and Quatro Barras are two Brazilian municipalities with extensive vegetative areas with social interaction and, in addition, suffer from the presence of wildfires. The aim was to delimit the wildland-urban interface for these municipalities, relating to the occurrence of wildfires, to serve as a subsidy for preventive and vegetation fire-fighting policies. It used a methodology for classifying wildland-urban interface areas, already established globally, based on the density of households and forest cover. Two methodologies from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics were used to obtain the density of households. When the statistical grid was used, Campina Grande do Sul presented a wildland-urban interface coverage of 12.5% ​​and Quatro Barras 13.6%. In the use of census sectors, Campina Grande do Sul presented 25.7% and Quatro Barras 13.6%. The statistical grid presented greater detail than use of the census sectors. The presence of fires in areas with a wildland-urban interface demonstrates the need for preventive policies to be applied to the habitants of these places. It is recommended to continue studies, as well as to create or adapt methodologies for classifying the wildland-urban interface based on local characteristics.