Lantmäteriet’s Role in the Fight Against Forest Fires During the Summer of 2018
Marija JURIC
Lantmäteriet, the Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority Lantmäteriet, fastighetsbildning
During the summer of 2018 Sweden experienced extremely high temperatures and close to no rainfall. This summer has been considered as a historically warm and dry summer, in Sweden as well as in many other countries in Europe. July has never been as hot as this year since the collection of Swedish weather data started 260 years ago. As a result, there have been many and large wildfires in the forests mainly in the northern parts of the country. In total it is
estimated that more than 25 000 hectares of land were affected and almost 3 million cubic
meter wood were destroyed by those fires. An approximate value of the disaster is calculated
to 900 million Swedish Kronor, or just over 100 million US dollars.
During the 2018 forest fires, Lantmäteriet organized a stationary and mobile function, called the Geocell, that provided support to local authorities, staff and IT systems. In addition to
providing geographical information, support included, local presence of GIS experts,
equipped hardware such a computers, printers and plotters that could collect, analyze and
print out maps based on the needs of rescue services, the police, country administrative
boards, etc.
This paper describes Lantmäteriet’s competence effort and qualified respond during the forest
fires 2018 and the related cadastral issues that Lantmäteriet are facing now. The paper also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between Lantmäteriet and other authorities as well as a stakeholder organization of land owners.
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