Fire analysis and prediction in the Zid-Elmoumen forestry (Northwest Algeria)
Abstract
M. El-Bouhissi*, H. Miloua, S.E. Bachir-Bouiadjra and A. Soummar
Forest fires have a significant impact on Northern African countries, especially Algeria, each year. Predicting fire behavior based on the shape of the current burned area and fireline is important in controlling subsequent fire in hazard wildfire zones, and it is especially important for forest planning and fire assessment. Weather, topography, and fuels are all variables that influence wildfire behavior. This analysis concentrates on a wild topography, which involves slope, altitude, and aspect under a wind conditions to try their role in shape of burned area. Various shapes of burned area were investigated from the Zid-Elmoumen forest in North-West Algeria between 2014 and 2020 to see just how topographic conditions under wind actions affects the burned area distributions. The burned area increased as the forest floor slope gradient was increased with up-wind and decrease with down-wind. In addition, fire spreading is more sensitive to a direction of steepest slope or aspect and their altitude relative to the imposed wind direction. As a such, the primary objective of this study is to understand a current wildfire behavior and suggest a prediction projected wildfires and susceptible burned area using specific data such as elevation, slope gradient, slope direction, and wind condition.