Research and analyses

DFCI Aquitaine is contacted for numerous projects related to issues concerning "land development" and "forest fires":

DFCI Aquitaine advises, trains and assists volunteers about the regulations that apply to owners' associations.

It participates in the Schémas d'Aménagement et de Gestion de l'Eau (SAGE, water use and management plan) commissions and the NATURA 2000 commission (issue of the water police, of DFCI structures, among others).

It works with forest users, mayors and other authorities in relation to topics such as fire zone surveillance, forest traffic and brush clearing.

It works in collaboration with the Office National des Forêts (French national forest service) to carry out Plans de Prévention du Risque Incendie de Forêt (forest fire prevention plans) in the Gironde département. These plans define prevention, protection and safe-keeping measures that need to be taken by public authorities or private individuals in areas that are exposed to forest fires.

It also recently participated in the "onboard mapping" program, the goal of which is to load all of Aquitaine's paper maps in digital format. Onboard mapping improves the updating process and the data processing chain; it also represents a tool that helps fire fighters locate fire starts in space.

Service pattern and several year development plan: an initial general analysis based on GIS data was conducted by DFCI in the Landes département. It highlighted those communes that were short of facilities (trails and water supply points). The next phase involves producing, depending on owners' needs, a local development plan making it possible to offer additional facilities both for DFCI and for the mobilization and storage of wood. Logging and draining necessarily interfere with the sustainability of structures and their proper state of operating or use. The GIP (Land development and risk control public interest group), which since 1 January 2006 has been uniting all GIS founding and user partners, could carry out these plans on the request of interested owners.