Determination of fire-access zones along road networks in fire-sensitive forests

Wild forest fires are one of the greatest environmental disasters affecting forest resources. Along the coastal zone of the Mediterranean region in Turkey,forested areas are classified as first-degree, fire-sensitive areas. Every year, thousands of hectares of forests have been destroyed in Turkey. In this study, fire-access zones were determined in the Mediterranean forests of Turkey, by utilizing geographic information systems(GIS) technology. The effective reach distance of fire hoses from both sides of roads was considered in order to delineate fireaccess zones. The effective reach distance can vary based on the technical capabilities and hydraulic capacity of fire trucks(minimum and maximum pressures on water pump);terrain structures(uphill, downhill and flat); and ground slope. These factors and their influences were studied in fire sensitive forest areas located in the eastern Mediterranean city of Kahramanmaras? in Turkey. First, terrain structures on both sides of the road network and groundslope classes were determined based on GIS data layers.Then, fire access zones were delineated according to water pressure data, terrain structures, and ground-slope classes.The results indicated that 69.30 % of the forested areas were within the fire-access zones, while the rest of the forest was out of reach the fire hoses. The accessible areas were also calculated for forested areas with different firesensitivity degrees. The accessible areas were 69.59, 69.96,and 67.16 % for the forested areas that are sensitive to fires at the first, second, and third degrees, respectively. This finding has implications for the monitoring and management of fire threats in areas outside of the reach distance.The outside areas should receive extra attention and monitoring during the fire season so that fires are detected ahead of time and management has sufficient time to react.Besides, new roads should be considered for these areas in order to access more lands in a shorter amount of time.     

Forest fire risk assessment in parts of Northeast India using geospatial tools

Forest fire is a major cause of changes in forest structure and function. Among various floristic regions, the northeast region of India suffers maximum from the fires due to age-old practice of shifting culti- vation and spread of fires from jhum fields. For proper mitigation and management, an early warning of forest fires through risk modeling is required. The study results demonstrate the potential use of remote sens- ing and Geographic Information System (GIS) in identifying forest fire prone areas in Manipur, southeastern part of Northeast India. Land use land cover (LULC), vegetation type, Digital elevation model (DEM), slope, aspect and proximity to roads and settlements, factors that influ- ence the behavior of fire, were used to model the forest fire risk zones. Each class of the layers was given weight according to their fire inducing capability and their sensitivity to fire. Weighted sum modeling and ISODATA clustering was used to classify the fire zones. To validate the results, Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), the historical fire hotspots data was used to check the occurrence points and modeled forest fire locations. The forest risk zone map has 55 63% of agreement with ATSR dataset.     

Forest Fires and Prevention Strategies in Northwestern Region of China

The paper described the natural conditions and forest types in Northwestern Region of China. Most forests in the region are distributed in subalpine areas. It is important to protect the existent forests in the region for maintaining ecological balance. According to the statistics results of 1991~2000, the paper analyzes the forest fires distribution and fire severity. Annually the numbers of forest fires range from 52 to 240. The incidence rate of forest fires in Northwestern Region is under 0.33 per ten thousand ha. There are 0.67-64.4 ha burned area per ten thousand ha forest. The main reasons for forest fires lie in the dry weather conditions, many firebrands, and high fuel loading. The strategies of fire management in the region are to stress the fire education in forest regions, strength the firebrands' management, emphasize the fuel management, and improve the fire monitoring and fire control ability.     

Quantifying economic losses from wildfires in black pine afforestations of northern Spain

We implemented a fire risk assessment framework that combines spatially-explicit burn probabilities, post-fire mortality models and public auction timber prices, to estimate expected economic losses from wildfires in 155 black pine stands covering about 450 ha in the Juslapeña Valley of central Navarra, northern Spain. A logit fire occurrence model was generated from observed historic fires to provide required fire ignition input data. Wildfire likelihood and intensity were estimated by modeling 50,000 fires with the minimum travel time algorithm (MTT) at 30 m resolution under 97^th percentile fire weather conditions. Post-fire tree mortality due to burning fire intensity at different successional stages ranged from 0.67% in the latest stages to 9.22% in the earliest. Stands showed a wide range of potential economic losses, and intermediate successional stage stands presented the highest values, with about 124 € ha^− 1 on average. A fire risk map of the target areas was provided for forest management and risk mitigation purposes at the individual stand level. The approach proposed in this work has a wide potential for decision support, policy making and risk mitigation in southern European commercial conifer forests where large wildfires are the main natural hazard.     

Resilience of European larch (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Larix decidua</Emphasis> Mill.) forests to wildfires in the western Alps

European larch is a dominant species in the subalpine belt of the western Alps. Despite recent increases in wildfire activity in this region, fire ecology of European larch is poorly understood compared to other larch species around the world. This study aims to assess whether European larch forests are resilient to fires, and to find out the factors that drive such resilience. We assessed the recovery of larch forests along a gradient of fire severity (low, moderate, high) based on the abundance and dominance of post-fire larch regeneration. We established 200 plots distributed among burned larch forests in nine wildfires that occurred between 1973 and 2007 in the western Alps. We included variables regarding topography, climate, fire severity, fire legacies, ground cover, grazing intensity, and time since fire. To evaluate potential drivers of larch recruitment, we applied generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and random forests (RF). Larch regeneration was much more abundant and dominant in the moderate- and high-severity fire classes than in the low-severity class. More than half of the plots in the moderate- and high-severity classes were classified as resilient, i.e., post-fire larch regeneration was enough to recover a larch stand. GLMM and RF produced complementary results: fire severity and legacies, such as snags, canopy cover and distance to seed source, were crucial factors explaining post-fire larch recruitment. This study shows that fire has a positive effect on larch regeneration, and we conclude that European larch forests are highly resilient to mixed-severity fires in the western Alps.     

Fire history recorded on pine trunks and stumps: Influence of land use and fires on forest structure in North Karelia

Dendrochronological dating of fire scars was used to determine the history of forest fires, and the effects of the fires and of slash‐and‐burn cultivation on forest structure were studied in eastern Finland. A total of 67 fire years were dated over an area of 26 km². Forest fires increased towards the end of the 17th century and again towards the end of the 18th century, but decreased markedly in the middle of the 19th century. The mean fire interval was shorter near the historically known slash‐and‐burn cultivation areas than elsewhere. A forest survey map from 1913 was used to reconstruct the forest structure after the cessation of slash‐and‐burn cultivation and forest fires. This map showed that most of the younger forests were situated near old slash‐and‐burn cultivation areas, while the older forests were situated farther away from these. The proportion of deciduous trees decreased with increasing distance from slash‐and‐burn cultivation areas.     

大兴安岭雷击火发生条件分析

根据2007—2009年大兴安岭林区闪电和林火监测结果进行分析,研究火灾发生时的火险状况和雷击火灾案例,提高对这一区域雷击火的认识。根据研究区内11个气象站定时观测数据,采用加拿大林火天气指数系统计算各站点每日火险指数,分析研究时段内火灾发生与火险和闪电分布的关系。结果表明:2007—2009年共发生野火195起,其中林火148起,主要发生在4,5和8月份。雷击天气主要出现在5—9月份,其中6,7和8月份闪电最多。闪电分布密度较高的区域主要在研究区东北部,大部分闪电活动伴随着降水,但在比较干旱的年份,容易出现干雷暴天气,易引发雷击火。根据林火及火灾发生前24h的闪电分布分析,雷击火占总火灾的5.1%,闪电活动不是影响林火发生的主要原因。雷击火主要发生在火险比较高、闪电活动频繁且无有效降雨的区域。     

Forest Fire Risk Zone Modeling Using Logistic Regression and GIS: An Iranian Case Study

Forest fires are an important environmental concern worldwide, affecting the soil, forests and human lives. During the process of burning, soil nutrients are depleted and the soil is subsequently more vulnerable to erosion. Nowadays it is necessary to identify the factors influencing the occurrence of fire and fire hazard areas, in order to minimize the frequency of fire and avert damage. Logistic regression was used to study the forest fire risk and identify the most influential factors in the occurrence of forest fires. Climatic variables (temperature and annual precipitation), human factors (distance from streams and farmland) and physiography (land slope and elevation) were considered and their correlation with the occurrence of fires investigated. Results of model validation and sensitivity of various areas to fire were examined with the ROC coefficient and Hosmer–Lemeshow test. The estimated coefficients for the independent variables indicated that the probability of occurrence of fire is negatively related to land slope, site elevation and distance from farmlands, but is positively related to amount of annual precipitation.     

Wildland fires and moist deciduous forests of Chhattisgarh,India: divergent component assessment

We studied moist deciduous forests of Chhattisgarh, India （1） to assess the effect of four levels of historic wildland fire frequency （high, medium, low, and no-fire） on regeneration of seedlings in fire affected areas during pre and post-fire seasons, （2） to evaluate vegetation struc- ture and diversity by layer in the four fire frequency zones, （3） to evalu- ate the impact of fire frequency on the structure of economically impor- tant tree species of the region, and （4） to quantify fuel loads by fire fre- quency level. We classified fire-affected areas into high, medium, low, and no-fire frequency classes based on government records. Tree species were unevenly distributed across fire frequency categories. Shrub density was maximum in zones of high fire frequency and minimum in low- frequency and no-fire zones. Lower tree density after fires indicated that regeneration of seedlings was reduced by fire. The population structure in the high-frequency zone was comprised of seedlings of size class （A） and saplings of size class （B）, represented by Diospyros melanoxylon, Dalbergia sissoo, Shorea robusta and Tectona grandis. Younger and older trees were more abundant for Tectona grandis and Dalbargia sis- soo after fire, whereas intermediate-aged trees were more abundant pre- fire, indicating that the latter age-class was thinned by the catastrophic effect of fire. The major contributing components of fuel load included duff litter and small woody branches and twigs on the forest floor. Total fuel load on the forest floor ranged from 2.2 to 3.38 Mg/ha. The netchange in fuel load was positive in high- and medium-frequency fire zones and negative under low- and no-fire zones. Repeated fires, how- ever, slowly reduced stand stability. An ecological approach is needed for fire management to restore the no-fire spatial and temporal structure of moist deciduous forests, their species composition and fuel loads. The management approach should incorporate participatory forest manage- ment. Use of c     

Chapter 12. A Wildfire and Emissions Policy Model for the Boise National Forest

Summary

We utilized the Boise National Forest's Hazard/Risk model, along with fire history records and fire behavior models, to estimate the current and anticipated levels of large wildfires and associated greenhouse gas and particulate emissions based on the forest condition and wildfire regime on the BNF. The model indicated that the forests at greatest risk of large, intense wildfires are the dense pondero-sa pine-Douglas-fir forests that make up over 1.1 million acres on the forest. We conclude that without an aggressive treatment program to reduce large areas of contiguous heavy fuel loadings the forest will be burned at an annual average rate of about 7.5% of the remaining at-risk forest. Using recent fire data to develop average patterns of intensity in wildfires within this forest type, we estimate that emissions will average around 1 million tons of carbon (C) per year over the next 20 years as the bulk of the ponderosa pine forests are burned. An aggressive treatment program featuring the removal of fuels where necessary, and prescribed fire as a means of re-introducing fire to these ecosystems, would result in a 30-50 percent reduction in the average annual wildfire experienced in the dense ponderosa pine forests, a 14-35% decrease in the average annual C emissions, and a 10-31% decrease in particulate emissions. We argue that the most effective way to curb emissions is with an aggressive treatment program linked to a landscape-based ecosystem management plan. This would have the effect of breaking up large contiguous landscape patterns so that fires become more patchy and diverse in their environmental impact, resulting in significantly reduced emissions as well as improved landscape diversity.     

福建武夷山生物圈保护区森林防火系统的研究

武夷山生物圈保护区，是以保护亚热带森林生态系统和自然景观为主的保护区．为了搞好该区的森林防火工作，在建立保护区地理信息系统、分析其护林防火现状的基础上，对其森林火灾预防监测体系进行了系统设计，对现代林火管理系统、火险等级及分布、森林火灾蔓延模型等进行了模拟和设置，为现代林火管理、防火设施配制及火灾损失评估等提供了系统分析的依据．     

The influence of mountain pine beetle outbreaks and drought on severe wildfires in northwestern Colorado and southern Wyoming: A look at the past century

Outbreaks of bark beetles and drought both lead to concerns about increased fire risk, but the relative importance of these two factors is the subject of much debate. We examined how mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreaks and drought have contributed to the fire regime of lodgepole pine forests in northwestern Colorado and adjacent areas of southern Wyoming over the past century. We used dendroecological methods to reconstruct the pre-fire history of MPB outbreaks in twenty lodgepole pine stands that had burned between 1939 and 2006 and in 20 nearby lodgepole pine stands that were otherwise similar but that had not burned. Our data represent c. 80% of all large fires that had occurred in lodgepole pine forests in this study area over the past century. We also compared Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and actual evapotranspiration (AET) values between fire years and non-fire years. Burned stands were no more likely to have been affected by outbreak prior to fires than were nearby unburned stands. However, PDSI and AET values were both lower during fire years than during non-fire years. This work indicates that climate has been more important than outbreaks to the fire regime of lodgepole pine forests in this region over the past century. Indeed, we found no detectable increase in the occurrence of high-severity fires following MPB outbreaks. Dry conditions, rather than changes in fuels associated with outbreaks, appear to be most limiting to the occurrence of severe fires in these forests.     

Mapping forest fires by nonparametric clustering analysis

Fires have a noteworthy role to play with regards to ecological and environmental losses in Mediterranean forests. In addition to ecological impacts, fire may create economic, social as well as cultural changes. The detection of fire-scars has critical importance to help decrease losses. In the present study, forest fires recorded in Antalya, one of the most important ecological and tourist regions within the Western Mediterranean, were clustered and mapped. Since the dominant factors and devastation records derived from the cases had nominal-scaled properties, a categorical data-based nonparametric clustering algorithm was performed in this evaluation. The proposed tool, k-modes algorithm, uses modes instead of means for clustering. The algorithm may be implemented quickly and does not make distributional assumptions concerning the available data. It uses a frequency-based method to update the modes of the fires. The derived modes from the maps may be useful information for local authorities to manage. In conclusion, the proposed nonparametric clustering procedure may be employed to build a decision-support system to monitor and identify fire activities and to enhance fire management efficiency.     

A comparative analysis of spatial, temporal, and ecological characteristics of forest fires in seasonally dry tropical ecosystems in the Western Ghats, India

The Western Ghats in India is one of the 25 global hotspots of biodiversity, and it is the hotspot with the highest human density. This study considers variations in the regional fire regime that are related to vegetation type and past human disturbances in a landscape. Using a combination of remote sensing data and GIS techniques, burnt areas were delineated in three different vegetation types and various metrics of fire size were estimated. Belt transects were enumerated to assess the vegetation characteristics and fire effects in the landscape. Temporal trends suggest increasingly short fire-return intervals in the landscape. In the tropical dry deciduous forest, the mean fire-return interval is 6 years, in the tropical dry thorn forest mean fire-return interval is 10 years, and in the tropical moist deciduous forest mean fire-return interval is 20 years. Tropical dry deciduous forests burned more frequently and had the largest number of fires in any given year as well as the single largest fire (9900 ha). Seventy percent, 56%, and 30% of the tropical moist deciduous forests, tropical dry thorn forests, and tropical dry deciduous forests, respectively have not burned during the 7-year period of study. The model of fire-return interval as a function of distance from park boundary explained 63% of the spatial variation of fire-return interval in the landscape. Forest fires had significant impacts on species diversity and regeneration in the tropical dry deciduous forests. Species diversity declined by 50% and 60% in the moderate and high frequency classes, respectively compared to the low fire frequency class. Sapling density declined by ca. 30% in both moderate and high frequency classes compared to low frequency class. In tropical moist deciduous ecosystems, there were substantial declines in species diversity, tree density, seedling and sapling densities in burned forests compared to the unburned forests. In contrast forest fires in tropical dry thorn forests had a marginal positive effect on ecosystem diversity, structure, and regeneration.     

Fire Occurrence Environments in Pinus pumila Forests

In recent years, many serious forest fires occurred in precious Pinus pumila forests in Daxing'anling Mountains of Heilongjiang Province and Inner Mongolia. But up to now, there is still a lack of proper understanding of fire occurrence environments in P. pumila forests. In present paper, we investigated and studied the fire occurrence environments. The results showed that fires in P. pumila forests had their own special fire environments. Abundant fuel, drought weather, dry thunder and high altitude terrai...     

福建林火的发生特点与防治对策探讨

对福建省近年发生的１９７起森林火灾归纳、分析表明，森林火灾发生频率最高的是生产用火，林火发生以２、３月份最多；上午１０时至下午１８时为林火发生的高峰；预防林火发生，应确定森林防火戒严期，开展火险预测预报，完善防火设施，以利于迅速扑火。     

Analysis of the seasonal characteristics of forest fires in South Korea using the multivariate analysis approach

For efficient forest fire management, special precautions are required in dry and strong-wind seasons vulnerable to severe forest fires. To extract the seasonal characteristics of forest fires in South Korea, the statistics over the past 16 years, 1991 through 2005, were investigated. The daily records of the number of fire occurrences, the total area burned and the average burned area per occurrence were examined to identify the seasonal patterns of forest fires using cluster analysis and principal component analysis; the risk of daily fires was also assessed using the ordered logit model. As a result, the fire patterns were classified into five clusters and a general danger index for forest fires was derived from the first principal component, showing relatively large-scaled fire regimes in spring, and frequent small-scaled fire regimes in autumn and winter. In connection with the ordered logit model, the probability for the five ranks of forest fire risk was calculated and the threshold for high-risk fires was detected. As an implementation of the results above, the proper forest fire precautionary period in South Korea was estimated, and consequently October 21 through May 17 was recognized as a dry season at a high risk of forest fires. This period began 10 days earlier in autumn and extended into midwinter (late December and January) as opposed to the existing precautionary period, indicating the need of more cautious forest fire management earlier in autumn and continuing through midwinter.     

The ecology of mixed severity fire regimes in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California

Forests characterized by mixed-severity fires occupy a broad moisture gradient between lower elevation forests typified by low-severity fires and higher elevation forests in which high-severity, stand replacing fires are the norm. Mixed-severity forest types are poorly documented and little understood but likely occupy significant areas in the western United States. By definition, mixed-severity types have high beta diversity at meso-scales, encompassing patches of both high and low severity and gradients in between. Studies of mixed-severity types reveal complex landscapes in which patch sizes follow a power law distribution with many small and few large patches. Forest types characterized by mixed severity can be classified according to the modal proportion of high to low severity patches, which increases from relatively dry to relatively mesic site conditions. Mixed-severity regimes are produced by interactions between top-down forcing by climate and bottom-up shaping by topography and the flammability of vegetation, although specific effects may vary widely across the region, especially the relation between aspect and fire severity. History is important in shaping fire behavior in mixed-severity landscapes, as patterns laid down by previous fires can play a significant role in shaping future fires. Like low-severity forests in the western United States, many dry mixed-severity types experienced significant increases in stand density during the 20th century, threatening forest health and biodiversity, however not all understory development in mixed-severity forests increases the threat of severe wild fires. In general, current landscapes have been homogenized, reducing beta diversity and increasing the probability of large fires and insect outbreaks. Further loss of old, fire tolerant trees is of particular concern, but understory diversity has been reduced as well. High stand densities on relatively dry sites increase water use and therefore susceptibility to drought and insect outbreaks, exacerbating a trend of increasing regional drying. The need to restore beta diversity while protecting habitat for closed-forest specialists such as the northern spotted owl call for landscape-level approaches to ecological restoration.     

Fire Environment Mechanism of Lightning Fire for Daxing''''an Mountains

Lightning fire is one of natural fires; its mechanism is very complex and difficult to control. Daxing'an Mountain is the main region that lightning fires occur in China. Research on lightning fires indicates that special fuel, dry-storm weather and high altitude form the lightning fire environment. Lightning fires have close relation with lights. When lightning occurs, especially dry-lightning which brings little precipitation with surface temperature growing and fuel dehydrating, these often lead to lightning fires. Lightning fires have characteristics of geography, time and topography. The higher altitude forest region in Daxing'an Mountain, the more lightning fires occur. Valley with altitude above 800 m in the north of 51.N and Larix gmelinii-Pinus pumila, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica -Pinus pumila forests on the top of mountain are the most concentrating region where lightning fires occur. One serial dry-storming can ignites many lightning fires, the furthest between them is as long as 150 km.     

A comparison of soil properties after contemporary wildfire and fire suppression

Forests that were subject to frequent wildfires, such as ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests, had fire-return intervals of approximately 6–24 years. However, fire suppression over the last century has increased the fire-return interval by a factor of 5 in these forests, possibly resulting in changes to the soil. The objective of this study was to determine if soils of recently burned areas (representative of the natural fire-return interval) have different properties relative to soils in areas without recent fire. To assess this, recent low-intensity, lightning-caused, spot wildfire areas were located within fire-suppressed stands of ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir of the central, eastern Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Soil horizon depths were measured, and samples collected by major genetic horizons. Samples were analyzed for pH, C, N, C/N ratio, cation exchange capacity (CEC), base saturation (%BS), hydrophobicity and extractable P. Results show very little difference in soil properties between sites burned by low-severity fires and those areas left unburned. Such minimal changes, from these low-severity fires, in soil properties from fire suppression suggest there has also been little change in soil processes.