João Carlos Verde
Physical Geographer, Ph.D
João Carlos Verde is a physical geographer, Ph.D, with a dissertation on Wildfire Susceptibility Modelling in Mainland Portugal, and a researcher on the field of risk modelling at the RISKam research group (Environmental Hazard and Risk Assessment and Management) of the University of Lisbon.
He is currently an advisor at the Portuguese Agency for Wildfire Integrated Management. He has also worked as an advisor at the Special Unit for Portuguese Wildfire Management System, which was created by the Portuguese Government late 2017 after a very severe fire campaign. His previous working experience includes several years at the Portuguese National Authority for Civil Protection during which he took on tasks such as advisor at the national command for relief operations or delegate to the ProCiv working party of the Council of the European Union. He has also worked for the Portuguese National Forest Authority as liaison with Civil Protection. João Carlos Verde has training under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism Training Programme.
Recent experience
Agency for Integrated Wildfire Management
Head of Integrated Management Policies, responsible for the 2020-2030 integrated wildfire management national plan (strategy and process chain), legislative process and liaison on EU funded projects. Coordinator and main author of the international Landscape Fire Governance Framework
Special Unit for Portuguese Wildfire Management System
Advisor, as part of cabinet of the special unit, created by the portuguese government after the severe wildfires of 2017, kickstarted the 2020-2030 integrated wildfire management national plan, authored several resolutions of the council of ministers and produced a proposal of incident command system revision, among other tasks
National Authority for Civil Protection
Supporting the national directorate for Civil Protection Resources (2015 – 2017) Physical Geographer at the Working Group on GIS (2014 – 2015) Head of Planning, Operations and Informations Unit at the national command for relief operations (2013 – 2014) National Operations Assistant at the national command for relief operations (2009 – 2013), awarded with the Civil Protection and Relief Medal of Merit The Civil Protection and Relief Medal of Merit is awarded to people or organizations standing out by their actions on protecting people and assets, on a preventive or operative level, under conditions of risk, solidarity and cooperation with authorities for coordination of relief resources.
Selected talks
Taming wildfires in the context of climate change: The case of Portugal
Launch event for the OECD report on the Portuguese case in taming wildfires Watch video Download PDF
Education
Ph.D in Physical Geography
University of Lisbon Dissertation on Wildfire Susceptibility Modelling in Mainland Portugal Download
MSc in Physical Geography, Risks and Environmental Resources
University of Lisbon Thesis on Wildfire Hazard Assessment and Modelling in Mainland Portugal (in Portuguese only) Download
Degree in Geography and Regional Planning, Physical Geography branch
University of Lisbon Degree in geography covering areas as geomorphology, geology, climatology, cartography, territorial management, among others
European Civil Protection Mechanism Courses
2010 – Community Mechanism Induction Course, Italy 2010 – Operational Management Course, Sweden 2012 – Assessment Mission Course, Cyprus 2012 – High Level Coordination Course, The Netherlands