WILDFIRE HAZARD AND ACTIVITY PATTERNS IN SHKODRA, ALBANIA

Wildland fires frequently affect Albania, causing varying degrees of economic and ecological losses each year.The paper presents a survey of the wildfires in Shkodra Qark District, one of the largest in Albania and one of the most vulnerable to various types of natural hazards.Shkodra Qark-District is situated in northern Albania, with a border of 304 km in length, 149 km of which are shared with Montenegro.The study's primary objective was to understand the characteristics of the Shkodra District in terms of fire risk, focusing not only on prioritizing the wildfire hazard level but also on the susceptibility of the local population.During the study timeframe, Shkodra Qark-District dominated with the most frequent fires, followed by Vlora.The yearly distribution of fire occurrence showed significant fluctuations, reflecting a substantial difference between Shkodra and country averages during Hot Summers, with exceptionally higher occurrence during low-control conditions (summer 2020); similar fire occurrence rates during Quiet Summers.The results demonstrated a significant dominance of fires lit during moderate-risk days, but a reduced number of fires lit during highrisk days compared to the country averages.However, the repressed value of fires on high-risk days was revealed due to the low number of days with high-risk exposure, despite the significantly high hit probability, except in the year 2021.The revealed results reflected, as well, a better response of the community to the media warnings and control forces, reflected in summer 2021, while a higher activity of the community, not responding to the alerts for different levels of risk during low-control conditions by state forces (as in 2020).