Watershed road network analysis with an emphasis on fire fighting management

Abstract

The aim of this study is fire hazard zoning the Chehel-Chay watershed and analysis of road network in order to fire-fighting management. Using effective factors on fire occurrence, the fire hazard map of the study area produced by support vector machine algorithm and then was divided into four hazard classes. The road length and type were investigated in the each fire hazard classes. The results showed that most of occurred fires are located in the close distances of roads and forest areas. The results showed that road types and land cover are important in fire occurrences and suppression. In high dangerous zone, the roads pass through forestlands, but in low dangerous zone, the roads are passing from farmlands. The roads do not cover the half of area and do not pass at two third of high hazard class zones. Therefore, appreciate road network planning is necessary according to fire-fighting management.

Keywords:

• Forest road
• fire hazard map
• fire-fighting vehicles
• Support Vector Machine (SVM)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohsen Mostafa

Mohsen MOSTAFA. PhD student of forest sciences. He is studying on forest road network designing based on watershed management needs and goals particularly in relationship between road and fire. Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (GUASNR), Iran.

Shaban Shataee Jouibary

Shaban SHATAEE JOUIBARY. PhD. Specializing in forest remote sensing. Associate Professor, GUASNR. He received his PhD from Tehran University in 2002. His research interesting is including using remote sensing in natural resources and natural hazard. He published more than 80 papers in national and international scientific journals in remote sensing, GIS and forestry categories. Now he is dean of faculty of forest sciences, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (GUASNR), and chief editor of Journal of Conservation and Utilization of Natural Resources in GUASNR.

Majid Lotfalian

Majid LOTFALIAN. PhD. Specializing in forest engineering. Associate Professor at Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Sari, Iran. He received his PhD from Tehran University in 2000. His research interesting is including forest road and forest harvesting. Now he is head of forestry department, natural resources faculty, University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Sari, Iran.

Amir Sadoddin

Amir SADODDIN. PhD. Specializing in watershed management. Associate Professor, GUASNR. He received his PhD from National University, Australia, in 2006. His research interesting is including watershed management. He was dean of Faculty of Rangeland and Watershed Management of GUASNR. Currently he is manger of the National Mega Project on the integrated watershed management in Iran.