Use of Remote Sensing in Developing a Forest Fire Occurrence Management System

在加拿大，森林火灾是一种严重的干扰。在过去的25年里，平均每年发生8300起火灾。每年平均有230万公顷的森林被烧毁。虽然火在肥沃土壤养分、杀灭病虫害、更新森林等方面有一定的优势，但它也造成了相当大的不利影响。这些损失包括：(I)因烧毁火场附近的树木和物业而造成的经济损失；(Ii)增加大气中的二氧化碳含量；(Iii)因空气质素恶化而危害健康；及(Iv)在扑灭大火时可能造成的人命损失。此外，在过去十年中，加拿大每年平均花费5亿至10亿加元用于灭火。因此，开发一个有效的森林火灾发生管理系统对于制定可持续的火灾管理战略以抵消不利影响至关重要。在这方面，目的是利用卫星平台获得的遥感数据(以数字图像的形式)，能够定期收集大片地理区域的信息。*这一拟议研究方案的总体目标是开发一个森林火灾发生管理系统。拟议研究的首要内容是利用遥感数据：*(1)加强最近开发的基于遥感的森林火灾危险预报系统；*(2)以更高的时间分辨率(即2天)确定地表物候阶段及其与火灾发生的关系；*(3)综合前两个要素的结果模拟火灾发生；以及*(4)利用第一要素的结果和遥感得出的叶面积指数数据，制定燃料管理战略，以在发生火灾时降低火灾严重程度。*这项拟议研究计划的成功执行将产生一个森林火灾发生管理系统的原型。它将在森林火灾管理、森林资源的可持续性和经济性以及指导处理火灾情况的研究和代码等方面非常有用。此外，作为拟议研究计划的副产品，其目的是开发基于开放源码平台的中分辨率成像光谱仪(MODIS)图像处理软件包；该软件包将公开提供。这种行动将使遥感数据在加拿大和世界其他地方的自然资源和自然灾害/灾害管理活动中的使用激增。

In Canada, forest fire is a critical disturbance. In the last 25 years, there have been on average 8300 fires annually. Each year on average 2.3 million hectares of forest have been burned. Though fire brings some advantages in enriching soil nutrients, killing insects and diseases, regenerating forests; however, it causes a significant amount of detrimental impacts. Those include: (i) economic loss due to burning of the trees and properties nearby the fire locations; (ii) increasing the carbon dioxide loading in the atmosphere; (iii) health hazard through air quality deterioration; and (iv) possible loss of human life in fighting large fires, among others. Also, every year on average Canada has spent CAD $500 million to $1 billion in fighting fires during the last decade. Thus, development of an efficient forest fire occurrence management system is crucial to develop sustainable fire management strategies in order to offset the adverse impacts. In this context, the intent is to use remote sensing data (in the form of digital imagery) acquired by the satellite platforms capable of gathering information over a large geographic area periodically.*******The overall goal of this proposed research program is to develop a forest fire occurrence management system. The foremost elements of the proposed research are the employment of remote sensing data to:****(i) enhance the recently developed remote sensing-based forest fire danger forecasting system;****(ii) determine land surface phenological stages at an enhanced temporal resolution (i.e., 2-day), and their relationships with fire occurrences;****(iii) model fire occurrences by combining the outcomes of the first two elements; and****(iv) develop fuel management strategies to reduce fire severity in the event of fire occurrences by using the outcomes of the first element and remote sensing-derived leaf area index data.*******The successful execution of this proposed research program will result in a prototype forest fire occurrence management system. It will be very useful in forest fire management; in sustainability and economics of forest resources; and in guiding research and codes in handling fire instances, among others. In addition, as a by-product of the proposed research program, the intent is to develop a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image processing software package based on an open source platform; which will be made publicly available. Such action will proliferate the use of remote sensing data in natural resource and natural hazard/disaster management activities in Canada and elsewhere in the world.***