Static Fire Risk Index for the Forest Resources of Karnataka

Abstract

Forest fires are the major cause of degradation of forest. Forest fires have caused substantial damage in the state of Karnataka in terms of economic, social, environmental impacts on humans and also loss of biodiversity. Fire risk indices are important tools for the management of forest fires. They are developed based on static and/or dynamic factors influencing the occurrence of fire and propagation of fire. The objective of the present study was to develop a new static fire risk index based on parameters influencing forest fire such as fuel type, elevation, slope, aspect, terrain ruggedness, proximity to a road, proximity to water bodies and proximity to settlements. MODIS Land cover type yearly L3 global 500m SIN grid(MCD12Q1) was used to compute fuel type index based on historical fire data, SRTM DEM was used to compute slope index, aspect index, elevation index, and terrain ruggedness index. Road index, settlement index, and water body index were developed from the proximity maps generated. A geographic information system (GIS) was utilized adequately to join diverse forest fire causing factors for demarcating static fire risk index. The evaluated exactness was around 87%, i.e., the developed GIS-based static fire risk index of the examination zone was observed to be in solid concurrence with actual fire affected regions. The study area exhibited 32.38% prone to fire risk. � 2019 IEEE.