Abstract
Fires such as those that occurred in 2019 in the Amazon are examples of the intensification of these events in recent years and contradict the claim that forest fires only reach great proportions in years of extreme drought. This is a worrying scenario, as the Amazon Rainforest plays an important role in regional and global climate regulation. This study therefore sought to identify the methodologies used to describe and predict fire events in the Brazilian Amazon. For this, a systematic literature review was carried out in the open access databases Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) using the descriptors “fire risk” and “Amazon”, and their variants in the Portuguese language and the logical operator “AND” in the search. From the resulting search materia we identified the use of predictive models based on projections for climate change developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which indicate a substantial increase in the probability of fires. Another technique used is the crossing of heat foci data with the forms of land use, evidencing the areas that burn the most and when, as well as the most susceptible areas. There were also studies analyzing the performance of fire risk indexes, demonstrating those that could be used after adaptations to local characteristics. These results allow an understanding of the behavior of fire in the Amazon, since they provide a broad view of how studies on fires have been conducted and what techniques have been used.
Highlights
Forest fires are complex phenomena dependent on several factors, such as weather conditions, topographic conditions, fuel availability and ignition potential (Matin et al, 2017)
It has some resistance to drought, natural dysfunctions and anthropic causes have modified the ability of the tropical forest to maintain its moisture, making it susceptible to burning (Cochrane, 2003; Aragão and Shimabukuro, 2010)
Four publications were in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) database and five in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) database
Summary
Forest fires are complex phenomena dependent on several factors, such as weather conditions, topographic conditions, fuel availability and ignition potential (Matin et al, 2017). In order to mitigate their damage, different fire risk indexes were developed to measure the probability of fire ignition, either due to natural or anthropic causes, in forest areas (Antunes et al, 2011). In tropical forests such as the Amazon, natural combustion events are rare (Cochrane, 2003; Cammelli et al, 2020). This is explained by the great humidity in these forests from their own trees (Fearnside, 2009; Nobre and Borma, 2009). It has some resistance to drought, natural dysfunctions and anthropic causes have modified the ability of the tropical forest to maintain its moisture, making it susceptible to burning (Cochrane, 2003; Aragão and Shimabukuro, 2010)
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