Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Ghaleb Faour, CNRS Lebanon نحو آلية مستدامة لمكافحة حرائق الغابات في لبنان

Objective The specific objective of this project was to implement Geographic Forest Fire Information System including the database collection and analysis, development of a fire risk map at the National level and at municipality level for the five pilot areas namely Ramlieh, Kornayel, Ras El Matn, Dmit and Mtein.

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Fire database Collection of forest fire archives Lebanese Civil Defense ( ) Newspaper Al Nahar (1983 – 2003) Ministry of Environment ( ) Ministry of Agriculture ( ) General Directory of Civil Aviation- Meteorological Department ( )

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Fire database Data conversion and management

Fig. 3. Le système de gestion des incendies de forets et d’espaces naturels crée sous Access.

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Fire database Statistical analysis Starting Time Number of fires :00-06:00 a.m. 152 %803 %503%3% 06:00-12:00 a.m %82131 %40126 % 12:00-18:00 p.m % %82954 % 18:00-00:00 p.m %41716 %27017 % Fuel type Thicket33.2%32%34%33% Dry herbs4.5%7%1%4.5% Pine forests10.5%5.5%8% Oak forests6.8%7.5%11.2%8.4% Cypress forests1%0.9%1.6%1.2% Wild areas2.1%5.5%4.3%4% Olives13.5%18.1%15.2%16% Fruit trees17.4%13.5%13%14.5% Mixed types9.3%9.1%10.2%9.5% Other types1.7%0.9%1.5%0.9%

Causes of forest fire occurrence Natural conditions Anthropic conditions

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Identification of burnt areas

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Fire Risk Map

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Forest Fire Risk Map Fire occurrence map

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS National Forest Fire Risk Map

Same methodology local parameters Higher precision: - Slope/Aspect: from contours lines 10m - Landuse: updated at 1/ Evapo-transpiration/nb of fires: the same - NDVI: from SPOT image (10m resolution) Fire Risk Map at Municipality level

Data collection

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Fire Risk Map at municipality level

Forest fire hazard mitigation in Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS Fire Risk Map at municipality level

Conclusion The obtained forest fire risk maps can be used in assigning in tactical decisions on prioritizing fires for initial attack. They give an indication of forest fires at long-term and they will be utilized by policy-makers to protect area suffering from fires. More work is required to better quantify values and risks, as well as suppression capability. The incorporation of a spatial climate model would improve fire behavior predictions.