Lama Ehssan* ⁽¹⁾ Ilene Mahfoud  ⁽¹⁾  Wael Ali  ⁽¹⁾ , and Ahmed Saidi  ⁽²⁾

(1) Ecology and Forestry department, Faculty of Agriculture Engineering, Tishreen University, Lattakia-Syria.

(2) Algerian space agency, Space Technology Center, Arzew- Algeria.

(*Corresponding author Lama Ehssan. E-Mail: ehssan.lama@gmail.com)

Received: 30/09/2021                          Accepted: 9/12/2021

Abstract

This research aimed to study the fire behavior of two Pinus brutia forests in Lattakia Alshorttah and Alfollk forest, These forests were affected by fires during the summer of 2016. Depending on the Fire Spread Index (FSI) and the Fire Spread Time (FST) as the main outputs of the fire simulation model, which was designed by ArcGIS 10.3 software, based on the following parameters: Wind Speed (WS), Wind Direction (WD), Index of Combustibility (IC), Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) and in addition to the Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), Slope (S), and Aspect (AS). The results showed that the fire behavior was affected by the degree of fire spread danger at the ignition point, also showed an increase in fire spread rate with the change of the west aspect to the south one at the same degree of slope. It was also noted, that the Fire Spread Index danger was increased due to the Moisture Content Index danger increasing on the edges of the forest near the agricultural lands. We conclude from this study the efficiency of designed model for studying fire behavior and determinate the spread rate in the studied forests.

Keywords: Fire Behavior, Pinus brutia, Fire Simulation Model, Fire Spread Index, GIS.

Full paper in Arabic: pdf