Forest Fire Risk Mapping by using GIS Techniques and AHP Method: A Case Study in Bodrum (Turkey)

Year 2019, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 25 - 35, 29.06.2019

Abdullah Emin Akay , Halil Şahin

https://doi.org/10.33904/ejfe.579075

Cited By: 22

Abstract

In Turkey, forest areas
located along the coastline of the Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean
regions are very sensitive to fire. As a result of forest fires, about 10000 hectares
of forest area is damaged annually. One of the key elements in firefighting is
early detection and quick intervention. In order to achieve this goal, first of
all, the forest areas with fire risk should be determined especially for fire
sensitive forest areas. The forest fire risk can be evaluated considering
various risk factors such as stand structures,
topographic factors, proximity to some features (roads, settlements, and water
resources), and climatic factors. In this study, GIS techniques and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used to produce forest fire risk
map for the first degree fire sensitive forest land located in Bodrum province
of Muğla in Turkey. The results indicated that 11.83%
and 21.98% of the forest area was categorized as very high and high fire risk,
respectively, while 22.28% and 25.93% was moderate and low fire risk,
respectively. The fire risk was found to be very low at the rest of the study
area (17.98%). To compare the fire risk map with actual forest fire occurrences
in the study area, it was overlapped with the fire map indicating forest
components where previous forest fires (>1.0 ha) occurred in the study area
in last five years. It was found that 38.32% of the areas damaged by the
previous fires were categorized as high and very high fire risks zones in fire
risk map, while 28.44% was moderate fire risk zones. The result
showed that tree species was the most effective risk factor, followed by tree
stages and proximity to water resources. This study revealed that
the combination of GIS techniques and AHP method is very advantageous approach
to map forest areas with fire risk in short time.  

Keywords

Forest fire, GIS, Fire risk map, AHP, Turkey

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