Mona Baraka (1) Mohammad Manhal Alzoubi(2) Ola Merhej(3) and Ruba Issa(1)*
(1). Department of Soil and Water Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen, University, Latakia, Syria.
(2). Agriculture Scientific Research Center, Latakia, Syria.
(3). General Organization of Remote Sensing, Latakia, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Ruba Mohammad Issa: E-Mail: rubaessa99@gmail.com).
Received: 29/06/2023 Accepted: 24/07/2023
Abstract:
The severity of the fires is a determining factor in assessing the condition of the region after the fire, however the fires that occurred on 10-9/10/2020 were extremely painful after they turned the green cover in the coastal mountains into ashes. The damage was not limited to forest wealth, as agricultural soils had a big share of it. Since soil is the basis for the return and renewal of forest wealth and the preservation of biodiversity as well as the sustainability of agricultural production. In this research, (30) sites exposed to fire were identified, distributed over the four regions of Latakia Governorate (Latakia region, Al-Qardaha region, Al-Haffa region, and Jableh region) two weeks after the fire broke out. And then the Normalized burn Ratio (NBR) index and the difference Normalized burn Ratio index (dNBR)were applied in conjunction with the application of The Composite burn Index (CBI). The results of the study showed that Latakia governorate exposed to fires that distributed to very low (0.5-1), low (1-1.5), medium (1.5-2) to high (2-2.5) and very high (2.5-3) according to the composite index, which showed the effectiveness of using the index of difference in the standard fire ratio in assessing the severity of the fire, by calculating the total accuracy of this indicator based on the points of the composite index as field checkpoints, which totaled to (84.67)%, The index showed the difference in the intensity of the fire throughout the studied areas, as the fir and Cedar preserve occupied the largest area in terms of high-intensity fires (1674.84) ha with a total burned area of (3466.37) hectares, and the Qardaha area occupied the highest total area of fire by (7830.23 ha), followed by the Latakia region (4931.52) ha, and on the contrary, the lowest total area of fire was in the Kfardabil area (3433.49) ha.
Key words: Composite burn index (CBI) – The Normalized burn Ratio index(NBR) – the difference Normalized burn Ratio index dNBR – fire intensity – Latakia governorate.
Full paper in Arabic: pdf