Forest Fire Risk Zone Mapping From Geographic Information System in Northern Forests of Iran (Case study, Golestan province)

ABSTRACT: Forest fires are a major environmental issue, creating economical and ecological damage while endangering human lives. Forest fires are one of the major natural risks in the Golestan province. It is impossible to control nature, but is possible to map forest fire risk zone and thereby minimise the frequency of fire and avert damage. Therefore, forest fire risk zone mapping as one of the urgent task for the protection of the environment is necessary. A geographic information system (GIS) can be used effectively to combine different forest-fire causing factors for demanding the forest fire risk zone map. Parameters that affect the fire such as topography, vegetation, slope, aspect, NDVI, meteorology factors were integrated within GIS. For these analyses ARCGIS software was used. Forest fire risk zones were specified by assigning subjective weights to the classes of all the layers according to their sensitivity to fire or their fire-inducing capability. The results of the analysis were shown by reports and graphics. The integration of these factors into GIS can be very useful to determine risky places and to plan forestry management after fire.