FirEUrisk: final project meeting in Alcalá de Henares, Spain

In late March, Alcalá de Henares, a city renowned for its 13th-century university and as the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, hosted the final meeting of the H2020 FirEUrisk Project. After four years of collaborative work, 38 partners from 15 countries gathered in Alcalá to celebrate the successful completion of the project.

FirEUrisk brought together experts from diverse fields, including biology, fire science, forestry, sociology, climate research, land management, and remote sensing, to address wildfire risk through assessment, reduction, and adaptation. This cross-disciplinary collaboration enabled a truly integrated and holistic approach to wildfire risk management. The tools and products developed throughout the project were tested and presented to stakeholders and end-users across 5 pilot sites and 28 demonstration areas throughout Europe, including in Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

TU Dresden’s participation has significantly expanded the Remote Sensing Group’s understanding of wildfire issues, while fostering new partnerships and friendships that will help us tackle wildfire risk and its consequences at both regional and global levels.

We would like to express our gratitude to Prof. Domingos Viegas, Prof. Emilio Chuvieco, George Eftychidis, and Ioannis Gitas for their outstanding leadership throughout the project. Our thanks also go to all the project partners who shared this journey and their knowledge with us. Their support has been both humbling and inspiring, and we look forward to building upon this experience, applying it on the ground, and passing on this valuable knowledge to our students.