Climate change driven changes of vegetation fires in the Czech Republic

With rising temperatures and decreasing soil water, the frequency of vegetation fires is increasing globally. We analyzed the impact of climate change on the frequency of vegetation fires that required intervention by the Czech Fire Rescue Service in the Czech Republic between 1971 and 2015. We analyzed spatial patterns across administrative regions and evaluated the role of climate and other contributing factors that could explain spatiotemporal shifts during the study period. Our study has shown that the frequency of vegetation fires has increased most in the warmest and driest areas of the Czech Republic countryside. The increase between 1991 and 2015 is about 70% in comparison with the 1971–1990 period. In all administrative regions, a statistically significant relationship of the frequency of vegetation fires and weather conditions has been demonstrated. In all regions of the study area, extreme occurrences of vegetation fires were due to a combination of drought and heat waves. We conclude that population growth at the wildland-urban interface causes a greater frequency of vegetation fires. However, the main reason for the statistically significant increase in the frequency of vegetation fires is the ongoing climate change, manifested by an increase in values of the Fire Danger Index and heat wave occurrence.