Mapping Forest Fire Risk and Development of Early Warning System for NW Vietnam Using AHP and MCA/GIS Methods

Abstract

Forest fires constitute a major environmental problem in tropical countries, especially in the context of climate change and increasing human populations. This paper aims to identify the causes of frequent forest fires in Son La Province, a fire-prone and forested mountainous region in northwest Vietnam, with a view to constructing a forest fire-related database with multiple layers of natural, social and economic information, extracted largely on the basis of Landsat 7 images. The assessment followed an expert systems approach, applying multi-criteria analysis (MCA) with an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the weights of the individual parameters related to forest fires. A multi-indicator function with nine parameters was constructed to establish a forest fire risk map at a scale of 1:100,000 for use at the provincial level. The results were verified through regression analysis, yielding R2 = 0.86. A real-time early warning system for forest fire areas has been developed for practical use by the relevant government authorities to provide more effective forest fire prevention planning for Son La Province.

UAV Assisted Spatiotemporal Analysis and Management of Bushfires: A Case Study of the 2020 Victorian Bushfires

“…The cultivation burning creates a budding site for the onset of bushfires, as the burning is not regulated periodically. The common anthropogenic causes of bushfires include burning agricultural lands, hunting wildlife, or harvesting honey through smoke [36]. Climate changes are also linked to bushfire events.…”

“…Once the areas prone to bushfires are identified, a detailed analysis of potential hazards is prepared using appropriate tools, knowledge, and planning. Remote sensing and GIS emerge as two key candidates for such management [36,41]. Accordingly, bushfire hazard models for respective regions considering the topography or environmental factors influencing the fires have been prepared.…”

“…An accurate evaluation of forest fire issues and pertinent decision systems are only reliable when the fire risk zone maps are available. Thus, integrated dynamic mathematical models coupled with remote sensing and geographical information system techniques are introduced to delineate the risk zones based on the fire risk mappings [36].…”

“…Randerson et al [51] and Van Hoang et al [36] have correlated the frequency of the active fire detections with the monthly observed burnt area from medium-coarse resolution sensors on the global to local scales. The local scale monitoring is typically validated through satellite burnt area imagery of the field measured samples.…”

Forest fire risk mapping using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and earth observation datasets: a case study in the mountainous terrain of Northeast India

“…The AHP method is among the most widely used MCDM [29]. AHP along with geospatial techniques has been successfully utilized for identifying the fire risk zones in many parts of the world [3,[30][31][32][33][34][35].…”