Abstract
Evaluation of Forest Fires with GIS
Track: Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management
Author
Forest fires can have devastating impact on environment and they are regarded as one of the most significant factors leading to land degradation. Effective use of satellite data and GIS plays crucial role on the evaluation of forest fires and satisfactory solution methods. Mumcular Forest Sub-District of Mugla city in Turkey, which has been severely suffering from forest fires during the last decade, was chosen as study area. Stand maps and color composite SPOT image of the study area were used for vegetation mapping. Road, settlement and other related coverages were derived by digitizing the topographic maps. SRTM data were used to obtain slope and aspect maps. Firstly, spatial and temporal patterns of forest fires in the study area were investigated by kernel density and hot-spot analysis in ArcGIS. Then, fire risk map was prepared by delineating fire risk zones and it was compared with the actual fire event sites.
Semih Kuter
Cankiri Karatekin University
Cankiri Karatekin Universitesi
Orman Fakultesi
Cankiri, Merkez 18200
Turkey
Phone: +90 544 409 15 44
E-mail: semihkuter@yahoo.com
Nurunnisa Usul
Geodetic & Geographic Information Technologies, Middle East Technical University
METU Civil Engineering Department K4
Ankara 06531
Turkey
Phone: +90 312 210 54 48
Fax: +90 312 210 79 56
E-mail: nurusul@metu.edu.tr
Nazan Kuter
Cankiri Karatekin University Department of Landscape Architecture
Cankiri Karatekin Universitesi
Orman Fakultesi
Cankiri 18200
Turkey
Phone: +90 544 409 15 45
E-mail: nkuter@karatekin.edu.tr