Tracking Fires in India Using Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (A)ATSR Data

Abstract

Forest fires pose a threat more serious than illegal felling in developing countries and are a cause of major concern for environmental security. Fires in tropical forests, though not devastating on a large scale as compared to large and infrequent fires in boreal or Mediterranean systems, still cause loss to biodiversity and economic and monetary value. In India, human-induced forest fires increasingly affect legally protected nature conservation areas. An array of satellite sensors that are now available can be deployed to monitor such events on a global and local scale. The present study uses night-time Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (A)ATSR satellite data from the last nine years to identify high fireprone zones, fire affected areas in protected zones and the distribution of these incidents in relation to bio-geographic zones. Central India, with its vegetation type that is just right for fire ignition and spread, was observed to be the most severely affected area with maximum fire incidences. The bio-geographic zone comprising this area-such as the Deccan peninsula, which includes provinces like Central Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Central OPEN ACCESSRemote Sensing 2010, 2 592Plateau and Chhota Nagpur-was observed to be the most affected, accounting for approximately 36% of the total fire occurrences during the period 1997-2005. In protected areas, 778 fire incidents were observed within the last eight years. Comparison of (A)ATSR fire locations with MODIS active fire data for the Western Ghats (mainly of tropical evergreen forests and savannahs) and the Eastern Ghats (tropical deciduous) showed a spatial agreement of 72% with a minimum distance between the two products of 100 m. This study focuses on regions in India that are vulnerable to forest fires during specific time-frames and appraises the situation with an aim to minimize such incidents, if not completely stop the fire spread and its consequent destruction and loss. Our main objective is to understand seasonal and spatial variation in fire pattern and to identify zones of frequent burning.

Wildfire Dynamics and Its Effects on the Forest Resources and Public Property in Nepal

“…A similar study was done by (Shu & Kou 2001) which depicted that the highest fire-hit time was in February, March, and April in South and Southwest forest areas in China. Moreover, in central India, higher wildfire was observed during the March and April due to prolonged dry seasons and droughts (Giriraj et al 2010), which was similar to the result of our research. In 2016, Portugal suffered many fires that burnt over 100,000 hectares of land and contributed significantly to the overall results of the fire season (Knorr et al 2016).…”

Forest fire risk assessment in parts of Northeast India using geospatial tools

“…Accurate and updated information regarding forest and forest fires could play vital and effective role in forest management programmes (Kunwar et al 2003). Monitoring these fires became easier with the availability of satellite data obtained with high temporal repeatability, spectral variability and wide spatial coverage (Giriraj et al 2010).…”

Mapping and Inventory of Forest Fires in Andhra Pradesh, India: Current Status and Conservation Needs

“…Among the states of Deccan Peninsula, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh are regularly affected with human-induced fires. Fire occurrence information as per AATSR satellite shows maximum fires during March and April in Deccan Peninsula [17]. The estimated forest burnt area of Andhra Pradesh state was 6369 km 2 during 2000 [18], which is based on coarse resolution (1.1 km 2 ) SPOT-VGT satellite data.…”