Digital services for disaster preparedness
Fire risk assessments and remote sensing data can help local communities better prepare for and prevent forest fires.
Summarised
- Climate change causes longer dry periods that increases the risk of forest fires.
- Frequent and large forest fires can harm peoples´ health and property as well as biodiversity and wildlife.
- Forest fires are hard to suppress in the Hindu Kush Himalaya as they often start in remote areas and spread quickly.
- Fire alert systems are needed for government and communities to take action to prevent unnecessary damage.
What is the issue?
Forest fires occurs naturally and are important in many ecosystems. Smaller scale fires clear out old vegetation and allow for new growth. Some plant and animal species have adapted to forest fires and depend on them to reproduce or spread.
Climate change cause higher temperatures and irregular rainfall, this increases the risk of forest fires. Frequent and large fires can easily come out of control and cause devastating damage to infrastructure, buildings, and homes. The smoke can be harmful to peoples´ health. In nature fires can destroy habitats, harm plant and animal populations and cause erosion.
What is the solution?
Managing and controlling fires can help reduce or avoid the negative effects. An efficient tool is an interactive fire risk map. This type of map combines the identification of fire prone areas in the country with remote sensing data that can detect fires using primarily heat and smoke as identifiers. The map can also act as a warning system for fires. This type of map can help local government and communities better understand the fire risks, the consequences of fire and how to avoid them in their area and reduce the negative impact of fires.
The tool helps us determine, to some extent, forest fire burned area and frequencies of forest fire incidences
Rabindra Maharjan, Acting Sunsuari Province Forest Director. Photo by the Forest Directorate.How can we assure success?
It is important that local communities and governments gets proper training in accessing, using, and utilizing modern tools and technology. Thorough training on using the online application is crucial for success.
