Landfire hazard assessment in the Caspian Hyrcanian forest ecoregion with the long-term MODIS active fire data

Abstract

Relatively little is known about the causes of landfire assembly in Golestan Province that are subject to environmental and anthropogenic factors. The present study investigated how the landfire hazard is influenced by the environmental and anthropogenic parameters in the fire-prone Hyrcanian forest. The MODIS hotspot data of the past 15 years were collected and analyzed in Golestan Province. The frequencies and distributions of landfires were investigated with 13 environmental and anthropogenic factors selected to construct landfire hazard maps by BLR and ANN methods. The comparison between MODIS active fire detections collected between 2000 and 2015 of the Golestan Province and landfire hazard areas, as predicted by the BLR and ANN, showed satisfactory results for ANN. The results of this study confirmed that anthropogenic variables were important predictors of landfire hazard and showed nonlinear relationships. Vegetation moisture, climate, and topography were also significant variables in the study area.