Wildfires: GIS and Remote Sensing Monitoring and Mangement

-

 



Forests cover 20.55% of total India's geographic area. This large forest area requires proper timely monitoring and assessment as there are various problems that cause forest degradation and affects the ecosystem to a large extent. Forest Fires are one of these problems. As per the report of Forest Sir of India, 50% of the forest land is prone to fire. The risk of forest fire is at an alarming rate in India, so it requires a proper risk assessment and monitoring report. Geospatial data and tools are employed in this field to manage the forest fires in India. Satellite imagery and aerial photography are used in mapping, high-resolution sensors are used to detect the fires. As these forest fires contribute to environmental consequences, we have most recently observed Amazon forest fires and forest fires in Australia, which are devastating, species have been killed, the land has been destroyed, air pollution and many more ill effects have taken into place. So, this is really an important issue to be resolved and authorities have started investing huge money into this sector to conserve forest lands.




Fire management:





During the middle 1990s, using Satellite imagery data and conducting global surveys to detect the burning of the biomass and it's plumes and their dispersal in the atmosphere will help us in studying and analyzing the patterns of a forest fire. Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment and along with Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer Cartography/Chemistry sensor helps us in the mapping of CO and O3 columns. During the 1997-1998 ESA ERS-2 has helped in assessment modeling of the forest fires.

EOS-A is providing a platform in the late 1990s for CO global mapping, it uses the MOPPIT  or TRACER sensors.EOS-B is providing a platform for vertical and horizontal mapping of variable traced species which includes Carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen, and ammonia.



Fire Risk Mapping Model




GIS and Remote Sensing in fire management and it's potential:

In the last three decades particularly, the advancement in GIS and Remote sensing technology is providing better results in wild forest fires. Areas with limited access to technology suffer more as detecting wildland fires is difficult in those areas. 

  • Fire potential- it depends upon the amount of vegetation that can be dead or live present in that area. The research project FIRE was launched by global resource and environmental monitoring in 1994 to address the issue. To estimate the vegetation, it requires a high-quality map derived from sensors with particularly high resolution such as SPOT, IRS, Landsat, etc.

  • Fire detection- Satellite sensors are specifically used to detect the fire, the detection of fire is only possible in a few Bands which includes visible, thermal, and mid-infrared bands. Active fires can be detected thermal or mid-infrared signatures during the day time or by lighting caused by fire during the night time. Various Satellites are used to store spatial data during day and night which are beneficial for further assessments.

  • Fire monitoring- it is different from fire detection as it places more emphasis on image processing and high resolution airborne thermal infrared sensors are deployed for maps which are further used for monitoring.

  • Fire assessment- it is a post-fire activity, it requires a combination of both high( SPOT, Landsat) and low resolution(AVHRR) sensors. The best way to assess the fire impact on land and environment, Radar is considered to be the best option. It can assess the severity, extent of the fire, loss of land, and vegetation. 


Spatial modeling techniques for forest fire risk assessment:






Why is it important?




It's been decades since we have been facing devastating wildfires in our forests which are severely impacting our forests, species population, habitat loss, etc. This is not just an ecological loss it includes economic loss, which cannot be compensated easily. The damage to the ecological niches is irreversible. 
The increasing global temperature is the leading cause of wildfires, predictions state that it will increase year by year. So, we need to rethink our policies and monitoring system to mitigate such devastating incidents.



The annual budget allocated for the monitoring and management need to be increased so that proper actions must be taken to carry out extensive surveys and studies. 
There is an urgent need to address the topic for the state and central governments otherwise the results will make them spent 10 times more capital.
It is good to invest early and take precautionary then to wait for the disaster to happen.
Local communities get worst affected by such incidents government must consider their livelihood activities into consideration before planning any policies related to Wildlife.

Conclusion: India is losing it's green cover at an alarming rate, for conserving our forest land we require a Sustainable Management approach. GIS and remote sensing are considered to be crucial technologies we have, as in the long run these technologies are more efficient in any manner, saves time, and are more economic in the long run. The geographic information system helps in organizing proper data sets that can be analyzed using various geospatial tools. We can create maps using these tools, forest cover mapping using space Satellite technology is already in operation. We have designed a model of fire risk assessment using GIS tools which is beneficial for us to assess the risk of fire and monitoring. Forest fire causes both economic and environmental damage which is a concern of everyone these days. Lastly, more improvement is needed to manage the forest fire, assessment, monitoring, etc which can be done by integrating public and private sectors.







Comments

Post a Comment

Most Read

Exploitation of Endangered Species of China

-
Image
  China is blessed with species richness, one in the 12 mega biodiversity countries. The total number of 35,000 species of higher plants, 10,000 species of crops, 6,347 species of vertebrates. The grasslands of China is a home for about 2000 species of wild animals and we can find economically and medicinally valuable plant species in that area in a large number, mainly ephedra sinica stapf, snow lotuse, liquorice, aweto, etc. 20,278 marine species were recorded in China so far, which is approximately 10% of world's total marine species. Beside the species richness in the country the level of species endemism is quite high. According to the reports, 35,000 higher plant species out of which 17,300 are endemic. Vertebrates 6,445 species and 667 species being endemic (China’s Fourth National Report on Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ministry of Environmental Protection November 2008). The National Government of China has listed endangered wildlife species in
Read more

'Doomsday Glacier' Melting, Wildlife Dwindling: On the way to Climate Disaster

-
Image
  Climate Change: Global Warming, Global Temperature Rising, Glaciers Melting, Sea Lever Water Rising, Coastal Areas Drowning, Various species dying, The World Is Moving, it should consider stopping, Nature is throwing constant warning, it is time we consider waking, Earth needs little care taking, otherwise the whole world would be shaking, We would be died, and cockroaches would be existing.                                                                                                  By: Bharat Parmar The most vulnerable glacier of Antarctica, which is one of the remote areas of the planet where till date 28 people landed, is under threat A place with such a level of vulnerability has become a hot topic of discussion because of its immense importance. We are talking about the Thwaites Glacier, which is a large piece of ice-mass. It is as huge as a Great Britain. The increasing global temperature is leading to the melting of this glacier. The intensity/rate of the mel
Read more

Polar Bears: Its inclusion in list of Endangered Species in US

-
Image
The iconic specie of circumpolar Arctic regions which is known as Polar bears or URSUS MARITIMUS is come under the category of hypo carnivore mammals, considered to be largest land mammals and has become the first mammal species to face the 100% habitat destruction due to global warming. Climate change is the major rival into the lives of polar bears. Starvation, human inter reference and exploitation and global warming led the polar bears to the critical stage where the species have experienced alarming rate of population decline in various arctic regions specially in Canada. In the year 2005, strong voices have raised to protect the Polar bears and it became the big headline at that time in United States. In 1973, the Government of USA has added polar bears to the Endangered species list but with time the studies and reports have shown decline in population of bears So, the authorities have decided to add Polar bears to Threatened species list of ESA. Conservation and protection a
Read more

ANIMALS OR RESOURCES?

-
Image
"These Beings are not Resources. They are living, breathing, hurting members of our living family. They deserve happiness too"   We share our living spaces with various species some of them are intricately linked with our daily routines as they provide us essential components that are considered to be important for our survival. The world livestock population is more than the human population, Brazil followed by India and China has the highest cattle and livestock populations. The rise in cattle and livestock population is due to the higher demands of livestock products in developed as well as developing Nations.  The livestock industry are well flourished and came under the formal sector where millions of people are dependent on their livelihood. Livestock and cattle rearing are common sources of income for millions of families throughout the Globe. So economically, Livestock Industry is contributing to a Nations GDP and supporting the growth of the country. Animals are
Read more