Although recurrent fire events with very short
return periods have the most dangerous effects on landscape
degradation, only a few papers have explored the
landscape ecological factors that drive the probability of
fire recurrence. In this paper we apply a habitat suitability
model for analyzing the spatial relationship between a
selected set of landscape factors (mainly land use types)
and fire recurrence in Sardinia (Italy) in the years
2005–2010. Our results point out that fire occurrence in
already burned areas is lower than expected in natural and
semi-natural land cover types, like forest and shrublands.
To the contrary, like in all regions where human activity is
the main source of fire ignitions, the probability of fire
recurrence is higher at low altitudes and close to roads and
to urban and agricultural land cover types, thus showing
marked preference for those landscape factors denoting
higher anthropogenic ignition risk