## 3 Case Study Application  
### Historic City Center of Guimaraes  
The historic city of Guimaraes, located in the district of Braga in northern Portugal, holds a special significance as the birthplace of Portugal. Its historic center, renowned for its remarkable preservation, was officially included on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 13 December 2001 [4]. The city's historical significance lies in its well-preserved architecture, showcasing the evolution of various building styles from medieval settlements to the present, particularly between the 15 th and 19 th centuries. The authenticity of Guimaraes is a testament to the diligent protection strategies implemented by local authorities. Urban conservation policies in Guimaraes have primarily focused on promoting the rehabilitation and revitalization of public spaces, preserving the resident population, and safeguarding existing historic structures constructed using traditional techniques [21].  
The origins of Guimaraes' Historic Center date back to the 10 th century when it consisted of two distinct elements: a monastery situated in the valley and a fort perched on the mountain. These two focal points gradually expanded and eventually merged, forming a walled town in the 13 th century. As the region continued to grow, the village extended beyond the protective walls. However, these fortifications remained largely unchanged until 1853 when Guimaraes was officially granted city status, prompting the removal of the surrounding wall. Subsequently, the city underwent a period of extensive urban development, including improvements to the city's extramural areas and various interventions within the historic center [10; 24].  
Analysis of cadastral data on fire incidents in Guimaraes reveals that most fires occur within the historic area. Although the number of human casualties resulting from these fires is relatively low, the city has suffered significant material, historical, and cultural losses. In response to this situation, the Guimaraes city council developed a pilot Fire Fighting and Security Plan in 2004, which has been implemented and integrated with the Guimaraes Municipal Civil Protection Emergency Plan [25]. It is important to highlight that the project and study area primarily focuses on the UNESCO-designated World Heritage area. In the event of a large-scale urban fire within this designated zone, the consequences for the municipality would undoubtedly be severe.  
For this study, the designated study area was divided into vulnerability assessment and criticality zones as depicted in Figure 1. These zones were established based on fire risk models developed in previous works [4; 10; 20; 21]. To ensure the validity of these models, it was crucial to compile a comprehensive database. Various data sources were used including an existing database within the research group of the University of Minho team [11], open data obtained from the Guimaraes City Council [26], data provided by the Guimaraes City Council as part of the National R&I Project known as InfraCrit (reference PO-CI-01-0247-FEDER-03955), which also contributed to this study as an outcome of the research conducted within the project, data derived from Copernicus services for climate change scenarios [27], and existing data from the official administrative chart of Portugal CAOP 2020 [16].  
Figure 1: Historic city center of Guimaraes: (**a**) Study area; (**b**) Criticality zones of study (Zone 1—White area; Zone 2—Blue area; Zone 3—Pink area; Zone 4—Green area; Zone 5—Red area; Zone 6—Yellow area; Zone 7—Light Blue area.