Selected laces Worldwide, RTiVISS implementation target critical “lungs of the world” as Brazil’s Amazónia [GMT-6], California [GMT-8], Indonesia [GMT+5], Angola [GMT+1], India [GMT+8], Australia [GMT+10].
Regarding the local implementation, three places in Portugal are proposed, in the light of the last episodes of fire hazards in the selected sites.

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RTiVISS fits with the need of raising awareness regarding Serra da Estrela, Sintra, and Madeira natural patrimony and fire prevention:

Maçal do Chão, as a non-place, for being one of the highest risk areas for forest fires, and for affective motivations and accessibility – a private property available for these experiments.
Maçal do Chão [GMT+0 | lat 40°42'0", lon 7°18'0"] is a village near Serra da Estrela, a Northern interior natural protected region in Portugal, where forest fires have dramatically devastated its unique shades of green – a decreasing trend in recent years due to reforestation local projects and maintenance cleaning works, as is the case of the RTiVISS monitored places Quintas das Mestras, Bocas, and Santo André.

Sintra UNESCO World Heritage Site, for its pioneering approach to Romantic landscaping, a unique combination blending local and exotic species of trees – exuberant forests that enchanted (not only) 19th century romantic writers; Sintra is close to the Portuguese capital Lisbon, and has surprisingly been affected by forest fires in recent years.


Madeira island's Laurisilva UNESCO World Heritage Site, as an outstanding relict of a previously widespread laurel forest type, and also because of its biological diversity. Madeira has also been recently the burning stage of several forest fires which have raised awareness and concerns of locals as well as tourist on the island. Historically, Madeira was known for its dense forest – the name “Madeira” means “wooded” in Portuguese. Initial settlers (1430) started an environmental disaster by setting fire to the island in order to clean land for cultivation. The fire eventually got out of control and caused extensive damage. Nowadays Madeira supports remnants of a type of laurel forest that was once widespread throughout southern Europe and northwestern Africa. The flora and fauna of this relict forest is quite unique; The ecoregion’s native laurisilva forests have been greatly reduced in extent and continue to recover from abuse, currently covering about 16% of Madeira.

References
Live RTiVISS webcam at Graça [GMT+0]

Lisbon, Portugal

Future work
Mashup with Google Earth