Forest Fire Damage Research Articles

A global forest burn severity dataset from Landsat imagery (2003–2016)

Abstract. Forest fires, while destructive and dangerous, are important to the functioning and renewal of ecosystems. Over the past 2 decades, large-scale, severe forest fires have become more frequent globally, and the risk is expected to increase as fire weather and drought conditions intensify. To improve quantification of the intensity and extent of forest fire damage, we have developed a 30 m resolution global forest burn severity (GFBS) dataset of the degree of biomass consumed by fires from 2003 to 2016. To develop this dataset, we used the Global Fire Atlas product to determine when and where forest fires occurred during that period and then we overlaid the available Landsat surface reflectance products to obtain pre-fire and post-fire normalized burn ratios (NBRs) for each burned pixel, designating the difference between them as dNBR and the relative difference as RdNBR. We compared the GFBS dataset against the Canada Landsat Burned Severity (CanLaBS) product, showing better agreement than the existing Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS)-based global burn severity dataset (MOdis burn SEVerity, MOSEV) in representing the distribution of forest burn severity over Canada. Using the in situ burn severity category data available for the 2013 wildfires in southeastern Australia, we demonstrated that GFBS could provide burn severity estimation with clearer differentiation between the high-severity and moderate-/low-severity classes, while such differentiation among the in situ burn severity classes is not captured in the MOSEV product. Using the CONUS-wide composite burn index (CBI) as a ground truth, we showed that dNBR from GFBS was more strongly correlated with CBI (r=0.63) than dNBR from MOSEV (r=0.28). RdNBR from GFBS also exhibited better agreement with CBI (r=0.56) than RdNBR from MOSEV (r=0.20). On a global scale, while the dNBR and RdNBR spatial patterns extracted by GFBS are similar to those of MOSEV, MOSEV tends to provide higher burn severity levels than GFBS. We attribute this difference to variations in reflectance values and the different spatial resolutions of the two satellites. The GFBS dataset provides a more precise and reliable assessment of burn severity than existing available datasets. These enhancements are crucial for understanding the ecological impacts of forest fires and for informing management and recovery efforts in affected regions worldwide. The GFBS dataset is freely accessible at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10037629 (He et al., 2023).

Single-Temporal Sentinel-2 for Analyzing Burned Area Detection Methods: A Study of 14 Cases in Republic of Korea Considering Land Cover

Forest fires are caused by various climatic and anthropogenic factors. In Republic of Korea, forest fires occur frequently during spring when the humidity is low. During the past decade, the number of forest fire incidents and the extent of the damaged area have increased. Satellite imagery can be applied to assess damage from these unpredictable forest fires. Despite the increasing threat, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis and effective strategies for addressing these forest fires, particularly considering the diverse topography of Republic of Korea. Herein, we present an approach for the automated detection of forest fire damage using Sentinel-2 images of 14 areas affected by forest fires in Republic of Korea during 2019–2023. The detection performance of deep learning (DL), machine learning, and spectral index methods was analyzed, and the optimal model for detecting forest fire damage was derived. To evaluate the independent performance of the models, two different burned areas exhibiting distinct characteristics were selected as test subjects. To increase the classification accuracy, tests were conducted on various combinations of input channels in DL. The combination of false-color RNG (B4, B8, and B3) images was optimal for detecting forest fire damage. Consequently, among the DL models, the HRNet model achieved excellent results for both test regions with intersection over union scores of 89.40 and 82.49, confirming that the proposed method is applicable for detecting forest fires in diverse Korean landscapes. Thus, suitable mitigation measures can be promptly designed based on the rapid analysis of damaged areas.

Study on Forest Fire Risk Analysis Based on Drought Scenarios

The number of forest fires is increasing worldwide owing to climate change. Forest fires linked to drought are becoming more frequent and severe than ever before. This causes massive damage. However, instead of quantification, studies have been conducted on the relationship between drought and forest fires. Therefore, this study quantitatively analyzed the increase in forest fire risk based on a drought scenario. We defined a 30-year frequency drought scenario for the Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, where the most forest fire damage occurred in 2022, and analyzed the risk of forest fires by calculating the Fire Weather Index (FWI) used in the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS). The precipitation in the drought scenario was 581 mm/year that was equivalent to 52% of the average annual precipitation. We noted that the drought Fire Weather Index (DFWI) was approximately 1.6 times greater than the average Fire Weather Index (AFWI). We quantitatively confirmed the extent to which the risk of forest fire increased under the influence of drought. Therefore, measures should be established not only for drought but also for forest fires when a drought occurs.

산불피해지의 바이오차 처리가 토양수분 변화에 미치는 영향

This study examined the change in soil moisture through the treatment of biochar during a restoration project from forest fire damage, and aimed to discover the relationship between precipitation and quantitative soil moisturizing effect of the biochar treatment. The study site was Okgye, Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, where a forest fire occurred in 2019. Biochar was mixed to increase soil, and therefore, changes were observed. The soil moisture content was about 21% higher in the biochar treatment plot than in the control plot, and the arrival time was about 3 hours longer. It was observed that the retention time of moisture infiltrated into the soil is increased in plot treated with soil moisturizer. The change in soil moisture was also affected by rainfall characteristics. Higher precipitation and longer non-rain period led to higher soil moisture in the treatment plot compared to the control plot. When the days without rainfall was within 7days, there was a significant difference in soil moisture between the control plot and treatment plot. Through the application of biochar, the characteristics of dry soil were reduced and wet condition were well maintained, confirming the effect of biochar treatment.

Forestry ecological security measurements and obstacle factor analysis in Yunnan

Forestry ecological security is not only a necessary condition for sustainable development of forestry economy, but also an important guarantee for protecting biodiversity and reducing carbon emissions. It plays a crucial role in achieving high-quality industrial development and ecological civilization construction goals. The ecological security of forestry in Yunnan was examined from 2011 to 2020 using the PSR model, entropy power technique, and barrier degree model. The results show that the forestry ecological safety composite index generally shows an improving trend, rising from 0.3495 in 2011 to 0.7290 in 2020. The index of forestry industry pressure subsystem and human response subsystem has an increasing trend, with an average annual increase of 22.36% and 34.05%, respectively. The index of forest ecological subsystem is on a decreasing trend. Urban sewage discharge intensity, forestry investment, per capita GDP, per capita water resources, per capita forest area, and per capita forest fire damage area were the main obstacle factors impacting forestry ecological security in Yunnan.

Uzaktan Algılama Teknikleri ile Orman Yangınının Neden Olduğu Hasarın Tayin Edilmesi

Forest fires are the leading natural disasters that endanger the living and lifeless environment in forest ecosystem. Every year, millions of forested areas burn out and Turkey is one of the countries most affected by the forest fires. In this study, forest fire started near Karabaglar was investigated. Using Landsat 8 satellite images, fire area was detected by using five different remote sensing indexing methods (dNDVI, dNBR, dNBRT, dBAI, RBR) were used and the fire area is mapped. Fire intensity was calculated and related map is then obtained. Thus, burn severity distribution in the region was estimated and shown as the burn severity map. As a result of the analysis, it is found that the most convenient results come from the RBR analyses with a 99% of consistency when they are compared with the burn severity data obtained in the field by the General Directorate of Forestry. The remote sensing technique has also demonstrated its ability to distinguish damage severity levels, even including undamaged sections in an entire forest fire damage zone, in a way that cannot be completely done in a field work.

Forest Fire and Environmental Damage: The Indonesian Legal Policy and Law Enforcement

Law enforcement regarding the environment is in fact a responsibility that should be fulfilled by the state. In this case, the state is the main actor in prevention, as well as a protector from any efforts to destroy nature and the environment. It can be understood that to maintain the crucial elements in the existence of a state, as agreed in the Montevideo Convention, among others, permanent residents, definite territory, government, the ability to enter into relations with the state. other. So with this it can be understood that environmental damage due to forest fires, is a form of threat also in the area element, because by burning ecosystems, it will result in an imbalance of life in an area, it can also be interpreted if the impacts arising from forest fires spread to enter the area. on the territory of neighboring countries, it will lead to unfavorable relations with other countries.

Characteristics of Spatiotemporal Changes in the Occurrence of Forest Fires

The purpose of this study is to understand the characteristics of the spatial distribution of forest fire occurrences with the local indicators of temporal burstiness in Korea. Forest fire damage data were produced in the form of areas by combining the forest fire damage ledger information with VIIRS-based forest fire occurrence data. Then, detrended fluctuation analysis and the local indicator of temporal burstiness were applied. In the results, the forest fire occurrence follows a self-organized criticality mechanism, and the temporal irregularities of fire occurrences exist. When the forest fire occurrence time series in Gyeonggi-do Province, which had the highest value of the local indicator of temporal burstiness, was checked, it was found that the frequency of forest fires was increasing at intervals of about 10 years. In addition, when the frequencies of forest fires and the spatial distribution of the local indicators of forest fire occurrences were compared, it was found that there were spatial differences in the occurrence of forest fires. This study is meaningful in that it analyzed the time series characteristics of the distribution of forest fires in Korea to understand that forest fire occurrences have long-term temporal correlations and identified areas where the temporal irregularities of forest fire occurrences are remarkable with the local indicators of temporal burstiness.

Detection of Forest Fire Damage from Sentinel-1 SAR Data through the Synergistic Use of Principal Component Analysis and K-means Clustering

Detection of Forest Fire Damage from Sentinel-1 SAR Data through the Synergistic Use of Principal Component Analysis and K-means Clustering

Selecting Forest Fire Vulnerable Regions Based on Biophysical and Socioeconomic Factors in Gangwon Province

The purpose of this study was to assess forest fire vulnerability by considering both biophysical and socioeconomic factors. The forest fire vulnerability index was mapped on a census tract level based on population, economy, information and location factors in Gangwon Province. The proxy variables for the index include ‘people older than 65 years, people younger than 15 years; rental houses, houses of 60㎡ or less, houses over 20 years old, people with an elementary school education or less, forest-urban interface areas within 30m, and coniferous areas. A statistical analysis was conducted on the amount of forest fire damage and the number of fire occurrences to identify the impact of each factor of forest fire vulnerability. Both the damage amount and the frequency of forest fires were higher in areas adjacent to forests than in urban areas where population and buildings are concentrated. The forest fire vulnerability map developed in this study can be used as the basic data to assign priorities in practices concerning forest fire prevention and response.

Role of Scientific Evidence in the Adjudication of Dispute for Restoration of Burned Forest and Land

One of the objectives of the adjudication of forest and land fire dispute is to restore the burned forests and land. However, evidencing aspect of forest and land fire cases in the judicial settlement is often challenging and the scientific evidence is sought. This normative legal research analyses court verdicts in a forest and land fire case qualitatively. It aims to describes the role of scientific evidence to the proof process in the adjudication that lead to the court verdict for environmental recovery of burned forests and land. Scientific evidence in the form of scientific studies and expert opinion admitted by the court has a role in proving land and forest fire occurrence, environmental damage and loss, and the causality element of the case.

Risk management of forest fire occurrence

This academic paper is devoted to the issue of how to reduce forest fire damage through affecting the fire causes. Forest fire causes are a subject of random probability. Adequate forest management is not possible when there is lack of precise information about when and where a forest fire may occur. When there are no ways and methods to influence the reasons of forest fires occurrence, the likelihood of a wrong decision is directly proportional to the negative consequences of forest fires. The research purpose was to develop mechanisms of risk management taking into account the cause and effect relation between human activities, natural phenomena and occurrence of forest fire. The risk as economic category is the target of the research. The scope of the research encompasses the process of decision-taking in forest management with regards to forest preservation from fires under the conditions of unpredictability. The research was based on a comprehensive approach to the problem and used contemporary regulations of sustainable forest management and global experience in forestry relationship. It was suggested to classify the causes of forest fires in groups. Probability of forest fires occurrence was estimated in accordance with various causes. There was introduced an approach of forest fire risk management based on strategic risk management. The results of the research can be used by scientific institutions, as well as by forestry companies while planning environmental protection measures. The research can proceed towards assessment and forecasting of fire risks in forestry at the national and international levels.

Nonparametric multivariate analysis of variance for affecting factors on the extent of forest fire damage in Jilin Province, China

Forest fires are influenced by several factors, including forest location, species type, age and density, date of fire occurrence, temperatures, and wind speeds, among others. This study investigates the quantitative effects of these factors on the degree of forest fire disaster using nonparametric statistical methods to provide a theoretical basis and data support for forest fire management. Data on forest fire damage from 1969 to 2013 was analyzed. The results indicate that different forest locations and types, fire occurrence dates, temperatures, and wind speeds were statistically significant. The eastern regions of the study area experienced the highest fire occurrence, accounting for 85.0% of the total number of fires as well as the largest average forested area burned. April, May, and October had more frequent fires than other months, accounting for 78.9%, while September had the most extensive forested area burned (63.08 ha) and burnt area (106.34 ha). Hardwood mixed forest and oak forest had more frequent fires, accounting for 31.9% and 26.0%, respectively. Hardwood-conifer mixed forest had the most forested area burned (50.18 ha) and burnt area (65.09 ha). Temperatures, wind speeds, and their interaction had significant impacts on forested area burned and area burnt.

Characteristics of Korean Forest Fires and Forest Fire Policies in the Joseon Dynasty Period (1392–1910) Derived From Historical Records

This study examined the records of forest fire outbreaks and characteristics over the 518 years of the Joseon Dynasty period (1392–1910) through the analysis of major historical records of Korea. The historical books used in this study were 14 major national historical books, and include the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (朝鮮王朝實錄), the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat (承政院日記), and the literature was examined, centering on official records of the royal palace in the Joseon Dynasty period. The contents of forest fires recorded in the historical record literature include the overviews of outbreak, forest fire types, and forest fire damage. According to the results of analysis of historical records, the largest forest fire damage was in the forest fire that occurred on the east coast in 1672, in which 65 persons died and in the forest fire that occurred in the same area in 1804, in which 61 persons died and 2600 private houses were destroyed by fire. The causes of fire outbreak were shown to be unknown causes in 42 cases, accidental fires in 10 cases, arson in 3 cases, thunder strike in 3 cases, hunting activities in 2 cases, child playing with fire in 1 case, cultivating activities in 1 case, and house fire in 1 case. Forest fire outbreaks were analyzed by region and by season and according to the results, 56% (39 cases) of the forest fires broke out on the east coast and 73% (46 cases) broke out in the spring. Forest fire policies include those for general forests, those for reserved forests, those for prohibited forests, those for capital city forests, those for royal family’s graves, royal ancestral shrine, and placenta chamber, those for hunting grounds such as martial art teaching fields, and relief policies for people in areas damaged by forest fires, forest fire policies for national defense facilities such as beacon fire stations, and burning and burning control policies for pest control. In conclusion, due to the seriousness of forest fires in the Joseon Dynasty period, the royal authority and local administrative agencies made various forest fire prevention policies, policies for stabilization of the people’s livelihood damaged due to forest fires, and methods to manage major facilities in forests.

Applying a support vector model to assess land cover changes in the Uvs Lake Basin ecoregion in Mongolia

The Uvs Lake Basin in western Mongolia is a natural world heritage site and is known for its diversity in landscape and wildlife. Recently, investigative research has shown that the protected pristine ecotone is suffering land degradation due to global warming. In order to obtain evidence of the changes over a long-term time scale, serial multi-temporal Landsat images obtained between 1995 and 2015 were used to classify land cover and land cover changes over the Basin ecoregion using a machine learning classification technique, support vector machine. Results showed that the forest land area in 1995 was 1888.48 km2 which was equivalent to 7.48% of the total area of the study site. The forest area showed considerable decrease by 301.36 km2 during the first decade (1995–2004) and 155.81 km2 during second decade (2004–2015). A total of 457.17 km2 or 24.21% of the forest land has been developed, most being changed into grassland. The major driver of such changes was illegal logging, forest fire, and pest damage. However grassland was changed primarily into bare land during the two decades. The area of glacier was decreased and primarily changed into water body. In contrast, the area of sand in the Basin ecoregion increased dramatically from 65.20 km2 in 1995 to 318.33 km2 in 2015 the increase being mostly from the transition of bare land. In summary, the drivers of the significant decrease of greenness coverage and increase of sand/bare land areas were the interaction of complicated disturbances in both anthropogenic and natural factors, in which logging, grazing, wind erosion, and global warming were the key causes.

Оптимизация затрат при тушении лесных пожаров

Проанализирована эффективность управления пожарами в США и России. Приведен основной принцип оптимизации затрат при тушении лесных пожаров и возможности преодоления сложностей при его внедрении в практику пожаротушения в России. Предложен метод оптимизации затрат при тушении лесных пожаров на основе карт растительных горючих материалов. The relevant background is analyzed in the USA and Russia. It is pointed out that expenditures for forest fire fighting and forest fire damage are in a dynamic reverse dependence. The main principle to optimize expenditures is formulated: the sum of expenditures and damage should be in the minimum. This becomes possible when expenditures and damage are equal. However, it is obvious that it is necessary to take into account a comprehensive damage, direct and indirect, including a predicted one. This principle is difficult to realize in practice since there are undefined and considerable fluctuations of fire areas and fire damage by years, as well as uncertainties in monetary evaluation of environmental fire effects (in particular, forest fire impact on atmospheric oxygen and carbon balance). The paper considers ways to overcome some difficulties on the assumption of equal estimation accuracy for various damage components. It is suggested that forest fire behaviour prediction based on vegetation fuel (VF) maps should be used for optimization of expenditures for forest fire fighting. Methods of making VF maps are developed at the Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS. The information databases for making such maps using forest inventory data are available for some parts of Russia: Chunskiy Forest Office (Krasnoyarsk krai) and nature reserves (Stolby, Sayano-Shushensky, Kuznetskiy Alatau, Ubsunurskaya kotlovina). With forest inventory information being absent or not relevant, it is possible to use a method of VF maps creation based on space images of high and ultrahigh resolution.

Forest Fire Damage Studies in the Northeast--I. Bark-Beetles and Fire Damaged Hardwoods

Forest Fire Damage Studies in the Northeast--I. Bark-Beetles and Fire Damaged Hardwoods

A New Optimized Localized Technique of CG Return Stroke Lightning Channel in Forest

Localization of lightning strike point (LSP) in the forest is modeled to mitigate the forest fire damage. Though forest fire ignited by lightning rarely happens, its damage on the forest is grievousness. Therefore, predicting accurate location of LSP becomes crucial in order to control the forest fire. In this paper, we proposed a new hybrid localization algorithm by combining the received signal strength (RSS) and the received signal strength ratio (RSSR) to improve the accuracy by mitigating the environmental effect of lightning strike location in the forest. The proposed hybrid algorithm employs antenna theory (AT) model of cloud-to-ground (CG) return stroke lightning channel to forecast the location of the lightning strike. The obtained results show that the proposed hybrid algorithm achieves better location accuracy compared to the existing RSS method for predicting the lightning strike location considering additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) environment.

Avoidable damage assessment of forest fires in European countries: an efficient frontier approach

The purpose of this research is to study the avoidable damage from forest fires in the most affected European Union (EU) Member States (MS) using a quantitative model based on a non-parametric efficient frontier technique, namely data envelopment analysis (DEA). The procedure allows the comparison of forest fire damage in EU countries by computing relative efficiency scores and quantifying improvement targets. The proposed DEA model evaluates a slacks-based measure of efficiency and considers two non-discretionary variables (the forest area of the countries and fire weather index). Data from the most affected EU countries over the period 2005–2010 have been used. An input-oriented model has been considered in order to take into account the number of fire events and total burned area as the fire management targets. The study finds evidence that there is a considerable excess of forest area affected by fire in most of the EU countries. The empirical results also suggest that the mean relative damage efficiency in Southern European MS and Other MS is not significantly different. From the efficiency scores, different clusters, with clear characteristic features, emerge. The next step is to extend the best practices of the efficient EU countries.

Assessment of Forest Diseases and Insects with Landsat TM Data

With the development of satellite remote sensing in the direction of high resolutionand multi-spectral,Landsat TM has become an advanced technique in the repeated acquir-ing of environmental resource information.Thought to be no-smoke forest fire damage,forest diseases and insects have caused tremendous loss to human being and the surround-ings.Landsat TM data has supplied as an practical technique in the monitoring and assess-ment of forest damage.Although it has been studied widely and many useful results havebeen achieved,it is still neccessary to probe into the mechanism and technical mothod inthe remote sensing monitoring of forest diseases and insects, so that it can be more practi-cal and easy to apply.Based on the experience of the research works in the eighth five-year key project,thispaper proved that TM data can be used in the mapping and assessment of forest diseasesand insects in county/city level, and it pointed out the neccessity to build different moni-toring parameters and models according to different forest distribution. The authors con-cluded that the probation of spectral contribution of multi-forest stand and photocommuni-ty green biomass should be the break-through to quantatively study the mechanism andmethod in the remote sensing monitoring and assessment of forest diseases and insects.