Forest Fire Hazards Vulnerability and Risk Assessment in Bhajji Forest Range of Himachal Pradesh (India): A Geospatial Approach

Abstract

The vulnerability of the Indian forests to fire varies from place to place depending upon the type of vegetation and climate. The coniferous forest in the region is very prone to fire. Objective of the current work is to prepare a model, which articulate the forest fire risk and assess the fire vulnerability so that the concerned authorities can minimize the fire danger. Fire hazard mapping was performed using knowledge based and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) models. For each fire hazard map six classes, i.e., very high to very low and were overlaid to generate cumulative fire hazard map. Census data were used to examine the socio-economic characteristics of the region through computation of total population, cultivators, total male population, total female population, children in age group 0–6 years and literates. A composite socio-economic vulnerability index map was generated. For each fire vulnerability map, five classes, i.e., very high to very low were assigned. Fire risk map was generated using fire vulnerability and hazard map in which, results indicate that 1.97% of the area had (very high), 5.34% (high), 25.90% (moderate), 36.23% (low) and 30.56% (very low) fire risk zones using knowledge based technique whereas 1.97% of the area had (very high), 5.46% (high), 24.53% (moderate) 27.22% (low) and 40.80% (very low) fire risk zones using analytical hierarchy process technique. Thereafter validation was performed with previous forest fire records. The overall result shows that there was very minor change in the forest fire risk zones using both the techniques.

Keywords: Forest fire, MCDA, AHP, vulnerability, hazard, risk