Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level
Wildland fires are some of the critical natural hazards that pose a significant threat to the communities located in the vicinity of forested/vegetated areas. In this paper, our overall objective was to study the structural damages due to the 2016 Horse River Fire (HRF) that happened in Fort McMurra...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/1424-8220/18/5/1570/ 2023-08-20T04:06:35+02:00 Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level M. Ahmed Khan Rahaman Quazi Hassan 2018-05-15 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/s18051570 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Remote Sensors https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18051570 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Sensors; Volume 18; Issue 5; Pages: 1570 2016 Horse River Fire structural damages very high spatial resolution wildland-urban interface (WUI) WorldView-2 Text 2018 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/s18051570 2023-07-31T21:31:20Z Wildland fires are some of the critical natural hazards that pose a significant threat to the communities located in the vicinity of forested/vegetated areas. In this paper, our overall objective was to study the structural damages due to the 2016 Horse River Fire (HRF) that happened in Fort McMurray (Alberta, Canada) by employing primarily very high spatial resolution optical satellite data, i.e., WorldView-2. Thus, our activities included the: (i) estimation of the structural damages; and (ii) delineation of the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and its associated buffers at certain intervals, and their utilization in assessing potential risks. Our proposed method of remote sensing-based estimates of the number of structural damages was compared with the ground-based information available from the Planning and Development Recovery Committee Task Force of Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB); and found a strong linear relationship (i.e., r2 value of 0.97 with a slope of 0.97). Upon delineating the WUI and its associated buffer zones at 10 m, 30 m, 50 m, 70 m and 100 m distances; we found existence of vegetation within the 30 m buffers from the WUI for all of the damaged structures. In addition, we noticed that the relevant authorities had removed vegetation in some areas between 30 m and 70 m buffers from the WUI, which was proven to be effective in order to protect the structures in the adjacent communities. Furthermore, we mapped the wildland fire-induced vulnerable areas upon considering the WUI and its associated buffers. Our analysis revealed that approximately 30% of the areas within the buffer zones of 10 m and 30 m were vulnerable due to the presence of vegetation; in which, approximately 7% were burned during the 2016 HRF event that led the structural damages. Consequently, we suggest to remove the existing vegetation within these critical zones and also monitor the region at a regular interval in order to reduce the wildland fire-induced risk. Text Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo MDPI Open Access Publishing Canada Fort McMurray Horse River ENVELOPE(-111.385,-111.385,56.717,56.717) Wood Buffalo ENVELOPE(-112.007,-112.007,57.664,57.664) Sensors 18 5 1570 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
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ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
2016 Horse River Fire structural damages very high spatial resolution wildland-urban interface (WUI) WorldView-2 |
spellingShingle |
2016 Horse River Fire structural damages very high spatial resolution wildland-urban interface (WUI) WorldView-2 M. Ahmed Khan Rahaman Quazi Hassan Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level |
topic_facet |
2016 Horse River Fire structural damages very high spatial resolution wildland-urban interface (WUI) WorldView-2 |
description |
Wildland fires are some of the critical natural hazards that pose a significant threat to the communities located in the vicinity of forested/vegetated areas. In this paper, our overall objective was to study the structural damages due to the 2016 Horse River Fire (HRF) that happened in Fort McMurray (Alberta, Canada) by employing primarily very high spatial resolution optical satellite data, i.e., WorldView-2. Thus, our activities included the: (i) estimation of the structural damages; and (ii) delineation of the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and its associated buffers at certain intervals, and their utilization in assessing potential risks. Our proposed method of remote sensing-based estimates of the number of structural damages was compared with the ground-based information available from the Planning and Development Recovery Committee Task Force of Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB); and found a strong linear relationship (i.e., r2 value of 0.97 with a slope of 0.97). Upon delineating the WUI and its associated buffer zones at 10 m, 30 m, 50 m, 70 m and 100 m distances; we found existence of vegetation within the 30 m buffers from the WUI for all of the damaged structures. In addition, we noticed that the relevant authorities had removed vegetation in some areas between 30 m and 70 m buffers from the WUI, which was proven to be effective in order to protect the structures in the adjacent communities. Furthermore, we mapped the wildland fire-induced vulnerable areas upon considering the WUI and its associated buffers. Our analysis revealed that approximately 30% of the areas within the buffer zones of 10 m and 30 m were vulnerable due to the presence of vegetation; in which, approximately 7% were burned during the 2016 HRF event that led the structural damages. Consequently, we suggest to remove the existing vegetation within these critical zones and also monitor the region at a regular interval in order to reduce the wildland fire-induced risk. |
format |
Text |
author |
M. Ahmed Khan Rahaman Quazi Hassan |
author_facet |
M. Ahmed Khan Rahaman Quazi Hassan |
author_sort |
M. Ahmed |
title |
Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level |
title_short |
Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level |
title_full |
Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level |
title_fullStr |
Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level |
title_full_unstemmed |
Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-Induced Risk Assessment at the Community Level |
title_sort |
remote sensing of wildland fire-induced risk assessment at the community level |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/s18051570 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-111.385,-111.385,56.717,56.717) ENVELOPE(-112.007,-112.007,57.664,57.664) |
geographic |
Canada Fort McMurray Horse River Wood Buffalo |
geographic_facet |
Canada Fort McMurray Horse River Wood Buffalo |
genre |
Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo |
genre_facet |
Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo |
op_source |
Sensors; Volume 18; Issue 5; Pages: 1570 |
op_relation |
Remote Sensors https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18051570 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/s18051570 |
container_title |
Sensors |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1570 |
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1774717798425034752 |