Forest fire risk zonation mapping using gis and remote sensing: a case study in Badulla district, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Forest fires are the main reason for changes in the structure of the forest coverage. According to the records of the Forest Department, Sri Lanka, as a percentage, more than half of forest fires were recorded in Badulla District. Badulla district is vulnerable to forest fires every year. It is one of the major natural disasters in Badulla district. It is not possible to control nature and natural disasters but possible to map forest fires and reduce their vulnerability. The identified problem of the study is, not having a proper forest fire risk zonation map for Badulla district, Sri Lanka. The main objective of the study is to analyse forest fire vulnerability and prepare a forest fire risk zonation map for the Badulla district. The study is based on Remote Sensing and GIS data. Those are the best methods for forest fire mapping beyond traditional methods. Traditional approaches make it challenging to map the intensity of fires. Topography, Land cover classes, and anthropological activities were taken as the variables of the study. Accordingly, the forest fire index was developed and given the ranks to variables variated from high to low. Further, a Forest fire risk zonation map was prepared and finally, a model was validated by calculating the RMSE value.