Empowering Strategic Decision-Making for Wildfire Management

Wildfires have become a growing hazard on a global scale, causing ecological and economic damage. Uncontrolled wildland fires are essential because of the potential for ecological destruction and soil consequences, and different technologies have been used to combat them in the previous decade. The importance of selecting a suitable technology and Decision Support system (DSS) is critical since the findings and validity of these might vary dramatically depending on the various environmental and geographic elements of the terrain to be researched. As consumption for both timber and non-timber forest products have increased over time, the old method of regulating the fire cycle has become obsolete.

Furthermore, over-exploitation of resources has resulted in the deterioration of significant swaths of forest. Forest fires have become massive as a result of climate change drying biomass and putting organic build-up over time, and they are no longer favorable to forest ecosystems. Grass, undergrowth, and crown fires are the three different types of forest fires. Grass and dry vegetation usually burn first and are relatively easy to control. When a fire approaches the treetops, especially in conifers, it becomes much more difficult to control, resulting in a crown or canopy fire.

Different forest organizations and agencies handle wildfire management, private land regulation, and public land management. As a result, a significant portion of their job contributes to the nation's governance. They help with public land management and play an important part in any country's governance. Geospatial data is used by state forestry bodies around the world. Geographic data with spatial dimensions can help you analyze the situation on the ground and make strategic decisions. Foresters make decisions based on gis data for forest conservation and prevention planning, forest management, and global forest future conditions.

Role of Remote Sensing in Wildfire Management

Remote sensing technology, panchromatic and multispectral satellite image data processing operations include georeferencing of the image, haze removal, and image enhancement techniques, pan-sharpened image, color balancing techniques are very suitable for examining change detection and mapping of the forest's land cover, culture data extraction, lithology classification, and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) classification and mapping. Urbanization (urban expansion monitoring) is also useful for monitoring emergencies. Most wildland fires are caused by a combination of edaphic, climate, and human actions. The major damage and widespread of the forest fire is attributed to the steep topography, high summer temperatures, high wind velocity, and the availability of highly combustible material on the forest floor.

Fire Potential

The amount of dead and live vegetation, as well as the moisture level of each, determines the fire potential. A high-quality landcover map obtained from (preferably) a high-resolution sensor, such as the IRS, Landsat TM, or SPOT multispectral scanner, or a lower-resolution sensor, such as the NOAA-AVHRR or NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, is used to quantify the amount of dead and live vegetation (MODIS). These satellites can be used to track changes in vegetative vigor, which is linked to the amount of moisture in live plants. The moisture content of the dead plants is calculated based on local weather conditions. As a result, a baseline land cover map and a quick assessment of vegetation state are required.

Fire Detection

Fires can be detected by satellite-borne sensors in the visible, thermal, and midinfrared bands. During the day, active fires can be recognized by their thermal or mid-infrared signature, and at night, by the light from the fires. The sensors must also offer regular overflights to detect them, and the data from the overflights must be provided quickly. AVHRR, which has a thermal sensor and makes daily overflights, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Optical Line scan System (OLS) sensor, which regularly makes overflights and routinely collects visible images during its nighttime pass, and the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) sensor, which provides visible and thermal images every 15 minutes over the United States, are among the satellite systems that have been evaluated for fire detection.

 Fire Monitoring.

Instead of the technologies utilized to interpret the satellite image information, fire monitoring differs from fire detection in terms of timing and emphasis. Generally, satellite sensors produce coarse resolution fire maps that depict the approximate location and size of wildland fires. To effectively map small fire hotspots and active fire perimeters, detailed fire suppression mapping necessitates the use of higher resolution airborne thermal infrared sensors. To deploy fire suppression workers and airborne water or retardant drops, higher-resolution fire maps are required.

Fire Assessment

 After a fire has been put out, a mix of low-resolution photos (AVHRR) and higher-resolution images (SPOT, Landsat, and Radar) can be used to analyze the fire's extent and damage. The baseline vegetation map used for fire prediction can be updated with information about new fire scars and vegetation succession within the scars. Continuous monitoring of fire scars yields a wealth of information on land cover transitions, including changes in productivity and biodiversity, which influence fire potential. The length and intensity of fire scars are critical pieces of information for rehabilitating burned areas.

Community-based Forest fire and traditional practices

Forest fires are becoming a more serious concern to populations all over the world. Traditionally, the administration and local communities worked together to reduce forest fire risk. However, throughout time, local people have been marginalized for forest departments/fire departments to handle forest fires. Community-driven Forest fire management, on the other hand, can help residents live longer. Property losses and infrastructure damage can be drastically reduced, saving millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. The discontinuance of some traditional forest management practices has resulted in a knowledge vacuum since elders are no longer passing on their knowledge to the younger generation. For managed fire use, community cohesion and 'connection' to local resources are particularly vital.

Forest fire management has been successfully taken over by a few communities from sponsored/government operations. However, allocating resources for forest fire management requires careful planning to ensure that poor communities are not overwhelmed by such arrangements, that they serve the community's requirements, and that they will continue to bring benefits in the future. Another incentive for community fire prevention and control is tenure security. A community's interest in fire management is bolstered by the absence of tenure dispute. Control over a community's resources may ensure that the community's interests and concerns are addressed and preserved. This, in turn, allows forest-dependent communities to prosper economically.

Forest Management Plans

The processing of Forest Management Plans (FMP) involves analyzing their state of updating, accuracy, and other factors that should be considered when estimating the features of the forest area harmed. The attributive data was linked to the graphical section of the FMPs to acquire information on the forest type, age, and density for each polygon.

Summary

Wildland fires help maintain healthy ecosystems but also cause damage. The size and intensity of wildland fires are expected to increase in the coming years. Wildland fire plays an important ecological role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. However, wildland fires also burn millions of acres each year, cost billions of dollars, damage homes and critical natural resources, and result in deaths. The size and intensity of wildland fires have increased in recent decades, partly due to climate change, and many scientists and researchers expect fires to become larger and more severe in the future.