Analysis on the Characteristics of Typical Forest Fire Weather Index in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Shanxi Region

Abstract

In the overall context of national eco-conservation civilization development and considering the hills in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Shanxi region, the local forest coverage rate is gradually on the rise, and so is the risk of forest fire. Every year, satellites can monitor and detect hundreds of fire spots on average. In recent years, serious fire took place for several times, leading to loss of life and personal injury. Then the fire-fighting work consumed huge amount of labor and material resources, exerting negative social impacts in many ways. Thus, the analysis of fire climate background in this region and the forecast based on fire weather indexes constitute an important part in the forest fire risk management. Located in the tropical monsoon climate zone, four provinces and municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shanxi are similar in terms of climate characteristics. This study tries to analyze the characteristics about fire spots under satellite monitoring, fire climate and fire weather index. The probability distribution analysis of weather index about fire spots in history and key meteorological observation stations as well as the weather index analysis in the early stage of typical fire indicate that the Fine Fuel Moisture Content (FFMC) and the Initial Spread Index (ISI) in the Fire Weather Index (FWI) system is applicable to the fire risk analysis in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Shanxi region, which can also effectively indicate the fuel moisture and spread conditions. As regards to the average level in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Shanxi, when the FFMC is smaller than 93.5 and the ISI is also smaller than 5.0, there is a low risk of fire; when the FFMC is above 94 and the ISI is larger than 10.0, there is a high risk of fire; and the fire risk will be extremely high if the FFMC is over 96 and the ISI is above 13.0. In the practical fire-fighting management, the fire danger class can be released in reference to the ISI classes and threshold values of key meteorological observation stations under analysis provided by this study.

Relationship between Climate-Shaped Urbanization and Forest Ecological Function: A Case Study of the Yellow River Basin, China

“…Indeed, climate intricately governs the distribution of forest tree species [47], influences forest productivity [48], shapes forest structure [49], modulates plant functional traits [50], and ultimately impacts the forest ecological functions and services [51,52]. In the previous studies, key explanatory variables related to human socio-economic activities, such as gross domestic product per capita (GDP) [17], degree of openness to foreign trade [53], and urbanization level [38] have been used as threshold variables. However, one of the main objectives of our study was to explore the changes in the relationship between urbanization and forest ecological function under different climatic conditions.…”

“…Furthermore, as urbanization progresses, both the government and public awareness of environmental protection intensify, benefiting the enhancement of forest ecological environments and functions. reported that the implementation of reforestation projects could diminish forest fragmentation [17]. Ehrhardt-Martines et al ( 2002) also noted a decreasing rate of natural resource consumption, including forest land, due to urbanization [12].…”

“…Wen et al (2018) discovered that precipitation plays a substantial positive regulatory role in the process of urbanization affecting vegetation cover [16]. However, , based on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, found that the level of urbanization had no significant impact on the degree of forest fragmentation [17].…”