Development and analysis of 11-year MODIS forest fire datasets across the Heilongjiang Province of northeastern China

Abstract

Forest fires are a recurrent environmental and economic emergency worldwide. To date, fire activity and its impact were addressed by most international projects. In this study, we processed MCD45A1, MOD13Q1, and in-situ monitoring history fire records for mapping and validating burn scars covering the Heilongjiang Province of northeastern China. Burned areas across this area and a coherent long-term forest fire inventory over a period of 11 years (2000-2010) were developed, focused on analysis of the spatial and temporal variations of forest fire occurrence and burn scars during fire seasons. The analysis showed that fire season in the spring long for three to four months due to the lowest relative humidity. There were hardly forest fires occurrence in the summer unless drought. Fire season in the fall is only 1-2 months. Over half of the burned areas were in Taiga Forest Region (53.68%), and about 44.00% of the burned areas were in Temperate Mixed Forest Region, while a little of the burned areas were in the Temperate Steppe Region (only 2.32%). The vast majority of forested area had a middle elevation (200m≤h≤500m) with gentle slopes (≤5°). So, development and analysis of a time series of burned areas in forests based on satellite remote sensing would help elucidate the relations and interactions among the fire activities and climate change, topography, vegetation type, and landform, and also would service for forest fire emergency management and decision-making policies