Wildfire motivation survey through the Delphi Method

Forest fires are neither a natural calamity nor a fatality, but rather an anthropogenic phenomenon, which directly depends on social behaviour, whether voluntary or involuntary. Given the increasing number of fires on a world scale, the current piecemeal approach to fire which mainly concentrates on fire suppression must be integrated with better and more efficient prevention, embracing a wide range of measures and activities that either modify fuels, or try to reduce the human caused ignition risks and sources, also changing, when possible, human behaviour. Understanding the reasons why fires start is, therefore, a crucial factor in order to prevent or reduce their incidence, to mount significant prevention efforts and to design specific fire prevention campaigns. A promising technique for improving knowledge about causes and motivations behind them is the Delphi technique, a set of procedures for eliciting and refining the opinions of a group, usually a panel of experts. With reference to case-studies in the South of Italy, the authors comment the results of th