Risk zone mapping of forest fire using GIS and AHP in a part of Paveh forests

Forest fires, as an ecological risk, whether with human or natural origin, have profound effects on land cover, land use, production, local economies, global trace gas emissions, and health. Identification of factors affecting the existence of forest fire as well as its zonation in the given watershed is one of the basic tools for forest fire control and fighting actions. The aim of this research is to develop the forest fire risk map based on vegetation, physiographic and climatic factors, human, distance to rivers and roads, in a part of Paveh forests. For this purpose, digitally diffusion forest fires map with field checks using GPS were prepared, initially. Then affecting factors were binary compared using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method by indicating the weight of each factor as indicator for their effects in occurrence of forest fire. Accordingly, the forest fire zonation risk map was prepared using weighted information layers and weighted coefficient of each factor. Five categories of forest fire risk, including very high to very low, were derived, automatically. The mapping result of the study area was found to be in strong agreement with actual fire-affected sites. The results indicate that the 90% of burned areas are located in high risk class.