Wildfires are often reported when they have already started. This project looks at a more permanent condition: where people live inside or close to vegetation that can sustain a large fire. The result is a national map of structural exposure, not a prediction of where the next fire will begin.
The analysis found that 8,567,434 people in Spain, 18% of the population, live either in combustible vegetation or within 400 metres of a continuous fuel area of at least 500 hectares. The 400-metre threshold is based on the area of influence used in regional regulations and offers a practical measure of the urban-forest interface.
Spain has no equivalent public national map, despite the legal mandate to develop a tool identifying the areas at greatest wildfire risk. That absence makes this map especially useful: it offers a consistent national baseline for directing prevention, planning and civil-protection work towards the people and settlements most exposed to fuel.
I worked on the geospatial analysis, cartographic design and frontend implementation with Daniele Grasso and Esther Sanchez. The published piece combines an explorable national map with local examples that make the country-wide pattern legible at the scale of towns and settlements. It was subsequently featured in Datawrapper's Data Vis Dispatch of August 4, 2026.