Abstract

Climate determines the spatiotemporal distribution pattern of forest fires by affecting vegetation and the extent of drought. Thus, analyzing the dynamic change of the forest fire season and its response to climate change will play an important role in targeted adjustments of forest fire management policies and practices. In this study, we studied the spatiotemporal variations in forest fire occurrence in Fujian Province, China using the Mann-Kendall trend test and correlation analysis to analyze Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from 2001 to 2016 and meteorological data. The results show that forest fire occurrence rose first and then declined over the years, but the proportion of forest fires during the fire prevention period decreased. The forest fires increased significantly in spring and summer, exceeding the forest fires occurring in the fire prevention period in 2010. The spatial distribution of forest fires decreased from northwest to southeast coastal areas, among which the number of forest fires in the northwest mountainous areas was large in autumn and winter. The fire risk weather index was strongly and positively correlated with forest fire occurrence across various sites in the province. The findings accentuate the need for properly adjusting the fire prevention period and resource allocation, strengthening the monitoring and early warning of high fire risk weather, and publicizing wildfire safety in spring and summer. As the forest fire occurrence frequency is high in the western and northwest mountainous areas, more observation towers and forest fire monitoring facilities should be installed.

Keywords

forest fire trends; forest fire occurrence; forest fire season; FWI; spatial and temporal fire distribution

Published in

Forests
2022, Volume: 13, number: 3, article number: 423
Publisher: MDPI

SLU Authors

• Tigabu, Mulualem

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University

Associated SLU-program

SLU Forest Damage Center


Sustainable Development Goals

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts


UKÄ Subject classification

Climate Research
Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/f13030423

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116796