Abstract
A forest fire can be a real ecological disaster regardless of whether it is caused by natural forces or human activities, it is possible to map forest fire risk zones to minimize the frequency of fires, avert damage, etc. A method integrating remote sensing and GIS was developed and applied to forest fire risk zone mapping for Baihe forestry bureau in this paper. Satellite images were interpreted and classified to generate vegetation type layer and land use layers (roads, settlements and farmlands). Topographic layers (slope, aspect and altitude) were derived from DEM. The thematic and topographic information was analyzed by using ARC/INFO GIS software. Forest fire risk zones were delineated by assigning subjective weights to the classes of all the layers (vegetation type, slope, aspect, altitude and distance from roads, farmlands and settlements) according to their sensitivity to fire or their fire-inducing capability. Five categories of forest fire risk ranging from very high to very low were derived automatically. The mapping result of the study area was found to be in strong agreement with actual fire-affected sites.
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Foundation item: The study was supported by a grant of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 70373044 and 30470302) and National Key Technologies R&D Program (No. 2001BA510B07)
Biography: XU Dong (1979-), male, Ph.D. candidate of Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, P. R. China.
Responsible editor: Chai Ruihai
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Dong, X., Li-min, D., Guo-fan, S. et al. Forest fire risk zone mapping from satellite images and GIS for Baihe Forestry Bureau, Jilin, China. Journal of Forestry Research 16, 169–174 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02856809
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02856809