Analysis of Fire Weather Index in Summer Season: A Case Study of Aegean and Mediterranean Region, Turkey

Abstract

Forests are an indispensable part of the earth in terms of their biodiversity and contributions. Climate change stands as one of the most critical factors impacting forests, which cover approximately one-third of our planet's land area. In particular, the link between climate change triggered by human-induced atmospheric changes and high temperatures stands out as a very important dynamic with far-reaching implications for ecosystems. A striking example of this situation is the doubling of the number of forest fires caused by global warming since 1984. Monitoring of forest fires is extremely important in terms of disaster monitoring and prevention. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS), which have been frequently used in the monitoring of fires in recent years, are prominent methods in terms of data collection, analysis and interpretation. In this study, it is aimed to perform fire risk analysis with the help of Fire Weather Index (FWI) values created with the help of meteorological parameters obtained from NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) remote sensing platform. The Aegean and Mediterranean regions of Turkey, which are exposed to more and more forest fires in the summer months every year, were selected as the study area. Accordingly, it was determined that the Aegean and Mediterranean regions are in the high and very high fire risk group for the summer months of July and August. However, it was determined that a decrease in fire risk values was observed in August 2022.