A GIS- and AHP-based approach to map fire risk: a case study of Kuan Kreng peat swamp forest, Thailand

Abstract

Forest fires are abrupt transformations of the natural ecosystem and management authorities are required to take preventive measures to tackle fire events. Geographic information system (GIS) is a powerful tool for providing information with a spatial context and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is a well-established technique for multiple criteria decision making. In this study, GIS and AHP are combined to analyse seven fire-related factors related to climate, topography and human influence. Fire risk for a peat swamp forested area in Kuan Kreng, Nakorn Sri Thammarat province, Thailand is estimated in five categories. 705 historic fire events from 2006 to 2017 are used to validate our approach. 82% of the historic fire incidents occurred within the highest fire risk class categories while only a few omission errors were recorded. The combined approach of GIS and AHP techniques can yield useful fire risk maps, which can consequently be used for future planning and management of fire prone areas.

Keywords:

• Fire risk
• peat swamp
• geographical information systems
• multiple criteria decision making
• analytic hierarchy process

Acknowledgements

The authors deeply appreciate the support received from the Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.