Spatial modeling of forest fire risk for the Municipality of Inhambupe, Bahia State, Brazil

Abstract

Spatial modeling of forest fire risk has the aim to determine areas most susceptible to fire based on variables that represent facility of ignition and propagation. This work developed a forest fire risk map for the Municipality of Inhambupe, Bahia State, Brazil, by elaborating thematic maps of the following variables: road system, population density, land occupation and use, watershed network, slope and aspect. These were evaluated by the analytic hierarchy process and integrated with map algebra. Based on the developed model, 75.46% of the studied area was classified as "high", "very high" and "extreme high" fire risk. When comparing the forest fire risk map with historical data of burned areas, 95% of the fires were in these areas.