Affiliation:
1. Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Forest Ecosystem Protection and Restoration of Poyang Lake Watershed, College of Forestry, Nanchang 330045, China
2. College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China
3. College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
Abstract
Sichuan Province preserves numerous rare and ancient species of plants and animals, making it an important bio-genetic repository in China and even the world. However, this region is also vulnerable to fire disturbance due to the rich forest resources, complex topography, and dry climate, and thus has become one of main regions in China needing wildfire prevention. Analyzing the main driving factors influencing wildfire incidence can provide data and policy guidance for wildfire management in Sichuan Province. Here we analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of wildfires in Sichuan Province based on the wildfire spot data during 2010–2019. Based on 14 input variables, including climate, vegetation, human factors, and topography, we applied the Pearson correlation analysis and Random Forest methods to investigate the most important factors in driving wildfire occurrence. Then, the Logistic model was further applied to predict wildfire occurrences. The results showed that: (1) The southwestern Sichuan Province is a high-incidence area for wildfires, and most fires occurred from January to June. (2) The most important factor affecting wildfire occurrence is monthly average temperature, followed by elevation, monthly precipitation, population density, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), NDVI in the previous month, and Road kernel density. (3) The Logistic wildfire prediction model yielded good performance, with the area under curve (AUC) values higher than 0.94, overall accuracy (OA) higher than 86%, true positive rate (TPR) values higher than 0.82, and threat score (TS) values higher than 0.71. The final selected prediction model has an AUC of 0.944, an OA of 87.28%, a TPR of 0.829, and a TS of 0.723. (4) The results of the prediction indicate that extremely high danger of wildfires (probability of fire occurrence higher than 0.8) is concentrated in the southwest, which accounted for about 1% of the area of the study region, specifically in Panzhihua and Liangshan. These findings demonstrated the effectiveness of the Logistic model in predicting forest fires in Sichuan Province, providing valuable insights regarding forest fire management and prevention efforts in this region.