The applications of Remote Sensing and GIS in modeling forest fire hazard in Mongolia

Fire is one of the disasters causing threats to the forests and the ecosystem through out the world. Fires have adverse effects on soil, forests and humans. During the process of burning, the soil nutrients are reduced and the soil is left bare making it more susceptible to both soil and water erosion. The forest cover is drastically reduced through the death of fire intolerant tree species. Furthermore, animal populations dwindle due to their death and others migrate due to loss of their habitats. Fire also leads to an increase in green house gas emissions. Air pollution due to smoke causes prolonged effects on human health such as respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Mongolia has a serious increase in forest fires. According to fire statistics, most of fires burned within the central and eastern parts of the forested areas. The mentioned areas are susceptible to fire because of the high flammability of the pine and larch stands. Mongolia has two fire season peaks. One peak is from March to mid June which accounts for 80% of all fires, while the other peak is from September to October which accounts for 5% of all fires. On average about 50-60 fires occur annually and the largest occurrence of the fires are human caused. According to statistics, it was revealed that since 1981 to date, fires have occurred and hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests have been destroyed. Therefore, it is vital to have correct and timely knowledge of the total area burned and the type of forest burned. It is impossible to effectively manage fires without a clear and correct understanding of the distribution and dynamics of forest fires. Remote Sensing and GIS can play an important role in detecting burnt forest and developing a spatial model to predict potential forest for fire. This study demonstrates the effective use of geo-information as a main source of information on fire. The study aims at developing a fire risk model for Mongolian forests. The ultimate goal is to manage and prevent fire from happening in Mongolian forests. The study is conducted in Batsumber District in Tov Province of Mongolia. Low spatial resolution MODIS 250 and 1000 meters and high spatial resolution ASTER 15 meter images are used in this study. The research is focused on mapping the land cover types in the study area, detecting and mapping burnt areas as well as developing a fire hazard model to identify fire prone areas using parameters such as forest cover types, topography, road network, habitation, rivers and weather parameters. Forest stand parameters such as, forest type, tree species and forest density are also be used in developing the model.