Forest Fires in the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ): Risk knowledge and public intervention

Every summer, the Metropolitan District of Quito (MDQ) is subject to the recurrence of forest fires with different consequences in terms of loss of protected areas of great biodiversity, affectation of public and private spaces of different use and impact on the population well-being. The management of municipal authorities of this type of risks is still limited, since there is no decisional tool that can improve the preventive planning and the response to the annual presence of these events. For this reason, the generation of a study on potential forest fires represents the first step towards the comprehension and the reduction of risks. The present article presents the result of this study, the mechanisms and the efforts of the municipal technicians that made possible the achievement of these tools in the frame of the Risk Reduction Program of the Metropolitan District of Quito. The obtained results allowed the implementation of prevention actions in areas with very valuable ecosystems services but fragile in the same time, as well as the improvement of the fire emergency plans in order to optimize resources and reinforce local capacities.