Development of an identifier of primary fire carriers

Abstract

To improve forest fire protection, large-scale vegetation fuel maps (VF) are needed. The technology for creating VF maps was developed at the Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS. It includes methods for making maps based on available forest inventory data, in the process of a new forest inventory, in the process of forest planning, or autonomous creation of large-scale VF maps for limited areas using aerial or ultra-high resolution satellite images. To apply any of the above methods, it is necessary to determine the types of primary fire carriers (PFC), the main group of vegetation fuels, which, when sources of fire appear, under certain weather conditions, causes the possibility of the emergence and spread of flame combustion throughout the territory. PFC types are reflected on the map itself, and other VF groups are reflected in the attached pyrological description, which is an abbreviated forestry description and information about a PFC type for each forestry plot, taking into account the critical drought class according to weather conditions and the period of a fire season. The article discusses the methodological issues of developing an identifier of PFC types on the example of Krasnoyarsk Priangar’e, since adaptation is required for its use in other regions. An example of the identifier given was used in the visual inventory during the forest management of a number of nature reserves. The result was a GIS-based information database for prompt creation of large-scale VF maps that can be used to assess the current natural fire hazard depending on weather conditions and to predict the behavior of occurring fires.

Keywords

• maps of vegetation fuels
• pyrological categories of vegetation areas
• interpretation of primary fire carriers types
• maps of current natural fire hazard
• vegetation fire behavior prediction