Potential assessment hazard of forest fires and rangelands using AHP model (Case study: Kamyaran city)

Fires in Zagros Rangelands and Forests Given the protective role of these forests in preventing water and soil erosion, it is a serious environmental threat to these forests and rangelands. The purpose of this study was to analyze the spatial distribution of fires in rangelands and forests of Kamyaran city and identify areas prone to fire. According to reported fires, the major fires were identified as having the highest frequency and frequency, and the file was compiled using the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the entire area in the past few years and after converting it to soft format. The Arc Map was transferred and a map of the scattered areas of forests and rangelands was prepared. Then, by analyzing the studies in this area and asking the experts of natural resources, Jihad of Agriculture and Meteorology, six factors influencing the fire in rangelands and forests of this region were analyzed. Influential factors include precipitation, temperature, river distance, distance from road, elevation and slope of the area. Then, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), the information layers in the Expert Choise software were weighted and then compared by pairwise comparison. Finally, after incorporating layers in Arc Map software, the final map of fire hazard zoning of forests and rangelands of the city was classified into five classes of areas with high potential to very low potential. The results showed that the ground truth layers were in full agreement with the final map and most of the large-scale wildfires were located in high potential and very high critical areas and from the total forest area and rangelands of the high potential areas. The fire covered an area of 45218.14 hectares, comprising 22% of the total area.