Forest fire risk mapping using analytical hierarchy process technique and frequency ratio method (Case study: Sardasht Forests, NW Iran)

This research aimed at mapping the risk of wildfire based on a number of influential factors including Elevation، slope، aspect، average annual precipitation، average maximum monthly temperature، land use/land cover، distance from road، distance from river، distance from agricultural lands and population density. The study was conducted in a study site encompassing 273. 3 km2 near Sardasht in northwest Iran. The burned areas were initially mapped by field visits. Then، using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method، influence of each factor on occurrence of fire was compared pairwise and weights were assigned to them. The frequency ratio method was used to derive a weight for individual classes of each factor. This was followed by mapping fire risk zones based on weighted combination of digital maps of the influential factors. The zonation map was later divided in five risk classes (ranging from very high to very low) by Jenks method. Validation of the risk map indicated the 98. 44 percent of the observed fires to be located in the mapped high risk zones. This represents the high accuracy of the applied technique for wildfire risk mapping across the study site.