Scaling and correlations in the dynamics of forest-fire occurrence

TL;DR

This paper investigates the statistical properties of forest-fire waiting times in Italy, revealing a scaling law linked to process correlations and stationarity, despite non-power-law fire size distributions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a scaling law in fire waiting times driven by correlations and stationarity, offering insights into the self-similarity of forest-fire dynamics.

Findings

Waiting times follow a scaling law despite non-power-law size distribution.

Scaling law is due to process correlations and size stationarity.

Highlights the self-similar nature of forest-fire occurrence.

Abstract

Forest-fire waiting times, defined as the time between successive events above a certain size in a given region, are calculated for Italy. The probability densities of the waiting times are found to verify a scaling law, despite that fact that the distribution of fire sizes is not a power law. The meaning of such behavior in terms of the possible self-similarity of the process in a nonstationary system is discussed. We find that the scaling law arises as a consequence of the stationarity of fire sizes and the existence of a non-trivial ``instantaneous'' scaling law, sustained by the correlations of the process.