Wildfire Risk Assessment Based on Geospatial Open Data: Application on Chios, Greece

Abstract

Wildfires burn tens of thousands of hectares of forest, chaparral and grassland in Mediterranean countries every year, giving rise to landscape, ecologic, economic, and public safety concerns. On the Greek island of Chios and in many other Mediterranean landscapes, areas affected by fire are difficult to access and control due to rugged terrain, requiring wildfire preparedness and response plans that support fire fighting. This study utilized open source data and a weighted linear combination to extract factors that determine wildfire risk. Landsat satellite imagery and publicly available geospatial data were used to create a Geographic Information System and a multi-criteria analysis to develop a methodology for spatially modeling fire risk on Chios, a Greek island with frequent fire occurrence. This study focused on the static, structural component of the risk assessment to produce a spatial distribution of fire risk as a thematic map. Fire weather conditions were accounted for using Fuel Moisture Content, which reflected dryness of dead fuels and water deficit of live biomass. To assess the results, historic fire data representing actual occurrence of fire incidents were compared with probable fire locations predicted by our GIS model. It was found that there was a good agreement between the ground reference data and the results of the created fire risk model. The findings will help fire authorities identify areas of high risk for wildfire and plan the allocation of resources accordingly. This is because the outputs of the designed fire risk model are not complex or challenging to use in Chios, Greece and other landscapes.