Forest fire risk modeling through GIS - remote sensing, Dahra region (Chlef-Algeria) as an applied model

Forests are considered a major natural resource, which plays an important role in maintaining natural ecological balance. The health of a forest in any given area is a true indicator of the ecological conditions, habitat composition, and species richness prevailing in that area. The coastal region to the Wilaya of Chlef (Algeria) suffers from both forest fires and the lack of scientific research on the subject, so in an effort to remedy that, the choice came to Dahra commune as a sample for a GIS and Remote sensing-based study for mapping forest fire risk. The model used combines different wildfire-causing factors for demarcating the forest fire risk zone map. Using a multitude of software and relying on several websites for data collection, the following variables were derived for the study area: vegetation moisture, slope, aspect, elevation, distance from roads, and the vicinity of settlements in the form of weighted layers. The result of the established modeling is the map of the fire risk index, where 51% of the study area represents a high to very high risk. The result of the coverage layers overlay is the final risk index, which showed an area of 103 Km² with very low fire risk, but on the other hand, most of the remaining surface represents high to very high risk with 42% and 9% coverage respectively. The main takeaway is that the forest fire management task in this area is super onerous and requires a tremendous amount of effort.