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GIS-based landscape vulnerability assessment to forest fire susceptibility of Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand, India

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Abstract

The study aims to assess the landscape vulnerability to forest fire susceptibility of Rudraprayag district, India, using frequency ratio model. Firstly, forest-fire-affected pixels were identified by using normalized difference burning ratio and ground survey. A total of 19,834 forest fire pixels were identified; out of these, 14,876 (70%) pixels were used to generate forest fire susceptibility map and the remaining 4958 affected pixels (30%) were used to validate the susceptibility model. Twelve forest fire conditioning indicators were selected: slope angle, slope aspect, curvature, elevation, topographic wetness index, soil texture, land use/land cover, normalized difference moisture index, annual average rainfall, road buffer, distance from settlement and distance from drainage to build the forest fire susceptibility model. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to validate the forest fire susceptibility map, and 85% prediction accuracy was found. Final landscape vulnerability to forest fire susceptibility was assessed by using overlay function in GIS environment. The result shows that 73% area of Rudraprayag district falls into low and moderate susceptibility classes and approximately 16% area falls into high and very high susceptibility classes. Landscape vulnerability analysis revealed that moderate and very high forest fire susceptibility occupies the inaccessible parts of the core forest area of the district.

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Source a http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/uttrakhand-forest-fire-claims-five-lives-even-as-government-steps-up-effort-to-bring-it-under-control-254290.html, b http://img01.ibnlive.in/ibnlive/uploads/2016/05/UTTARAKHAND_FIRE.jpg, c http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/uttarakhand-forest-fires-latest-updates-iaf-choppers-3-000-hectares-of-jungles-destroyed/1/656717.html, d http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/uttarakhand-forest-fire-governor-seeks-deployment-of-ndrf-companies-1401086, e http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/020516/uttarakhand-forest-fire-controlled-kiren-rijiju.html, f http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/4-people-arrested-for-starting-forest-fires-in-uttarakhand-number-of-incidents-down/story-pK6mAbgn7D6LipztAXs67K.html

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Acknowledgement

The authors are highly thankful to USGS for providing free Landsat data downloaded via USGS EarthExplorer which has been used in this study. We would also like to thank organizations like National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, India, Survey of India, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for using their data in the present study. We are very thankful to the anonymous reviewers and the editor in Chief of Environmental Earth Sciences James W. LaMoreaux, for their valuable comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript. We would also like to thank local communities (Villagers) of Rudraprayag district for accompanying us to different places in mountainous areas during the field survey to different fire affected areas in forests. Thanks are also due to Forest Department of Uttarakhand State for granting us the permission to visit the fire affected areas in the forests. We are also very thankful to different news media like India Times, IBN live, India Today, NDTV, Deccan Chronicle, Hindustan Times for using their photographs taken at the time of the fire events in Uttarakhand forests during Spring season (2016) which have been used in this paper.

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  1. Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Mehebub Sahana & Tariq Ahmad Ganaie

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  1. Mehebub Sahana
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Correspondence to Tariq Ahmad Ganaie.

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Sahana, M., Ganaie, T.A. GIS-based landscape vulnerability assessment to forest fire susceptibility of Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand, India. Environ Earth Sci 76, 676 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-7008-8

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