A geospatial analysis of climate variability and its impact on forest fire: a case study in Orissa state of India

Featured Image

Photo by Joanne Francis on Unsplash

Photo by Joanne Francis on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The dynamic changes of forest fire events are due to the swing of climate parameter. Geospatial technology has strong capability to analyze various thematic datasets towards visualization of spatial/temporal pattern and plays a vital role in fire management efforts. This paper aims to analyze the climate and forest fire trend using Geospatial technology in the state of Orissa of India. The 84.5% of forest fire events are observed in the month of March and April and it is significantly high in the south of Kandhamal, east of Kalahandi, north of Rayagada and north of Gajapati district. The parameters which favour the forest fire events in the month of March onwards were observed. The Maximum temperature is showing an increasing trend from February to June whereas the increase is significantly high during March and April. The solar radiation increased to 144% in the month of March when compared with preceding month whereas relative humidity was decreased to 64% in the same month. The evaluation of Cramer V coefficient values of minimum temperature, solar radiation, maximum temperature and relative humidity are found to be 0.302, 0.327, 0.366 and 0.482 respectively. The relative humidity shows strong relationship with fire events. Such data analysis would help in safeguarding the forest.