ÍNDICES DE PELIGRO Y SIMULACIÓN DE INCENDIOS FORESTALES EN AMBIENTE SIG PARA BAJA CALIFORNIA

Abstract

Every year wildfires affect hundreds of hectares of conifer forest, chaparral and grass on Mediterranean ecosystems in the northern _part of Baja California, Mexico. Personnel, equipment and financia! resources are spent annually to preserve valuable forests and areas used far recreation. However, fire also plays a very significant role in vegetation types and succession processes. lnformation of tire risk and tire behavior is required far the proper management of those areas. The objective of this research was to develop a GIS environment that incorporates tire danger indexes and forest fire simulation. As ·a results of this research, a prototype was developed with capacity to generate fire danger index as well as tire simulations in an integrated GIS environment. lnformation of ignition probability, rate of spread and burn index were obtained far the system, allowing the classification of areas with· fire risk at local and state scale. The tire simulation module of the system incorporates LANDSAT TM satellite imagery and temporal meteorology information to· predid fire behavior with application in specitic areas (prescribed burning). Variables as time of arrival, rate of spread, and tireline intensity generated by the simulator can be analyzed by the spatial module of the system, obtaining information with rnore detail on tire behavior.