Assessment of fire hazard for forest sites at the territory of oil and gas complexes using Earth remote sensing data

Abstract

Vegetation fires, including forest ones, are an important environmental factor. Development of natural resources is always linked with increased number of human-caused ignition sources. The latter increase the frequency of fires on adjacent forest and non-forest areas by an order of magnitude. Ecological impact of the “additional” fires may exceed the impact of industrial pollution and even put the industrial objects and settlements at danger. Therefore one of the components of the ecological expertise for resource-exploration companies (especially the oil and gas ones) in the forest zone should be pyrological expertise, which should primarily include assessment of fire hazard for vegetation sites in the oil and gas complexes. The design of oil and gas complexes requires an expert environmental impact assessment (EIA). Unfortunately, its main focus is on direct impact assessment. However, oil and gas companies produce also an indirect environmental impact, for example, through the change of the fire regime on the adjacent area. At present, the V. N. Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS develops a method of pyrological expertise for resource-exploration companies. The method is based on the use of vegetation fuel maps (VF maps) for an objective general assessment of fire hazard as well as an assessment of the current fire hazard depending upon the weather conditions. A method is suggested for making VF maps using remotely sensed data. Deciphering characteristics are developed for primary fire carriers shown in VF maps (on the example of the Yurubcheno-Tohomsky deposit).

Keywords

• pyrological expertise
• fire hazard
• vegetation fuel maps
• remote sensing of the Earth
• deciphering characteristics of primary fire carriers