Detection of high fire risk areas in Zagros Oak forests using geospatial methods with GIS techniques

Zagros Grass Index—A New Vegetation Index to Enhance Fire Fuel Mapping: A Case Study in the Zagros Mountains

“…Since the fires are primarily human-caused [13,14], deliberately or accidentally, the affected areas are majorly adjacent to the artificial regions where humans are living or cultivating areas where humans live or cultivate [40,67]. Despite the remarkable results of previous studies on land cover mapping within the study area and regions with comparable climate conditions, particularly emphasizing grass species as ecological contributors [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], this study focuses on grass as a potential source of dangerous dead biomass and the most flammable fuel type in our study area and other similar regions [40][41][42]. The spread and continuity of dead or living vegetation are primary factors in sustaining fires, and dry grasses-especially dense ones-have been proven to have the highest potential for fire propagation [40,68,69].…”

“…Rasooli et al [37] determined the main factors that influence fire occurrence, identified areas with a higher vulnerability to fire, and assessed that vulnerability using remote sensing data combined with GIS. In Iraq, however, some studies were also conducted for mapping land cover in KR using VIs and DL approaches [38,39]. Although several studies have employed satellite images for mapping land cover, a minority deal with differentiating grass species from wood species.…”

“…Although several studies have employed satellite images for mapping land cover, a minority deal with differentiating grass species from wood species. If they do, they focus on urban areas using high-resolution images [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. However, the grass species has not been disregarded completely, and it is mostly classified as a member of the rangeland class with other members such as shrubs.…”