Processing of Fire Service Products for Wildfire Monitoring in Tanzania at MESA TAFORI Fire Station: The use of ArcGIS Software

Transcription

1 Processing of Fire Service Products for Wildfire Monitoring in Tanzania at MESA TAFORI Fire Station: The use of ArcGIS Software 1 S. Ernest* 1 Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI), P.O Box 1854, Morogoro, Tanzania *Corresponding author: S. Ernest, Tanzania Forestry Research Institute, P.O. Box 1854, Morogoro, Tanzania. siwa.ernest@taforitz.org, nkyasiwa@gmail.com Abstract Fire is an important traditional land management tool. However, in SADC Region vegetation fires have become of major concern with regard to its negative impacts on the environment and humans welfares. Due to this, wildfire service of MESA Program has fire stations in SADC Region for wildfire monitoring. These fire stations receive spatial fire products that are processed in GIS environment for detecting and monitoring active fires, and assessing fire damages. Results are produced as reports and delivered to stakeholders for supporting and improving the decision-making process with regard to fire management for sustainable development. TAFORI Fire station is among the MESA Fire Stations that use ArcGIS software for wildfire monitoring in Tanzania. Challenges that are met in the application of ArcGIS in the station are; development of random points is done in other software (GME), adding an autoincremential field is difficult, dissolve tool doesn t work for a layer having many attributes and the software is not an open source. 1.0 Introduction Fire is an important traditional land management tool. But, it affects the physical state of the vegetation and is associated with forest degradation (Cochrane, 2003; Goldammer, 2006 cited in Muller and Suess, 2011). As a result of this, fire plays a major role in the conversion of organic matter from vegetation and soils into carbon (Muller and Suess, 2011). Around the world, an area between 75 million and 820 million hectares of land burn each year. It is anticipated that global warming will increase wildfire frequency, particularly in semi-arid regions (Earth Policy Institute, 2014). In the last two decades, vegetation fires have become a

2 major concern in the SADC Region with regard to the negative impacts they have on the environment and humans welfares (SADC, 2010). Currently, in Tanzania wildfires are reported to be increasing at an alarming rate. Among the factors contributing to this are insufficient plans and programs to control fire, lack of or weak integration of informal knowledge and policy implementation relating to forest management (URT, 2008 cited in FAO et al., 2013) Due to this, MESA (Monitoring Environment and Security in Africa) program which has been developed with the fund from European Union (EU) to address the need for improved environmental monitoring towards sustainable management of natural resources in Africa, has developed wildfire service in SADC Region. Wildfire service is composed of fire stations which receive fire service products for wildfire monitoring in the SADC Region. These stations processed the fire products into information in order to achieve more effective and appropriate fire management policies and practices in the region. As fire service products are inherently spatial, the processing of these products is done in a GIS software.gis software provides tools for presenting spatial data, aid in measuring of fire data and integrate other layers. TAFORI Fire Station in Tanzania is among the MESA stations that utilize ArcGIS software in processing fire service products. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1 Data collection In wildfire monitoring, the station receives daily active fires data from MODIS (Tera and Aqua satellites) and from MSG, Fire Danger Index (FDI), Burned Area products data and other data disseminated via Eumetcast (Figure. 1)

3 Figure 1. Fire Station System 2.2 Data processing The ArcGIS software is used; To detect and monitor Active Fires This is done through the analysis of MODIS active fire data (flown in NASA s terra and aqua satellites) and MSG active fire data received by the fire station. The msg-abba.bat is used to convert the text files to a shapefile. Thereafter, ArcGIS software is used to clip the shapefile to get amonthly active fires shapefile for Tanzania. Moreover, the Kernel Density in Spatial Analyst Tools of ArcGIS is used to convert monthly active fires shapefile into fire density map for Tanzania. The data is then integrated with other spatial layers such as Tanzania regions boundaries to get information on the fire density by region.

4 2.2.2 To assess fire damages This is done through the collection of monthly 5.1 MODIS Burned Area image (MCD45A1) and shapefile obtained from the MODIS Fire FTP. These data are processed in ArcGIS to get the burned area for Tanzania. Thereafter are integrated with other spatial layers such as Tanzania regions boundary, roads and land cover types shapefiles to get information on the burned areas by region and by land cover. 3.0 Results 3.1 To detect and monitor Active Fires Daily fire detected is directly being reported to respective offices through telephone or by providing the coordinates and map information on close by land marks in order to assist them with mobilization and strategic crew movement (Figure 2). Also, monthly active fires shapefiles are produced to indicate the status of active fires in a month per region (Figure 3). Figure 2. Active Fires Product

5 3.2 To assess fire damages Figure 3. Active fire points of October, 2014 for Tanzania Monthly highlights on burned area for Tanzania are produced (Figure 4)

6 Figure 4. Map showing burned area by region for July, Discussion Monthly highlights on burned area and fire density for Tanzania are being compiled in the form of monthly reports. These reports as well as monthly active fires shapefile are produced to stakeholders via TAFORI website ( and MESA website ( These highlights support and improve the decision-making process with regard to fire management for sustainable development in Tanzania. Indirectly, highlights contribute to the REDD strategies that aim in enhancing carbon stored in forests from deforestation and forest degradation. Wildfires are among drivers of forest degradation, so appropriate fire management is expected to halt forest degradation and hence mitigation of climate changes effects

7 5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations Remote Sensing and GIS has made easy the wildfire monitoring and assessment of various fire mgt practices and programs. Active fires and BA products layers over a specified time are integrated with other layers of fire management in GIS environment for assessment of fire management practices. The station is also planning to use GIS software in validating MODIS BA products by error matrix and regression analysis. However, in the use of ArcGIS software (ArcGIS 10) following challenges was met; development of random points is done in other software (GME), adding an autoincremential field is difficult, dissolve tool doesn t work for a layer having many attributes and the software is not an open source. 6.0 Acknowledgements This work was made possible by Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI). TAFORI allowed the researcher in the Fire Station to attend in this Esri Eastern Africa Education GIS User Conference. References Earth Policy Institute (2014). Wildfires by Region: Observations and Future Prospects[ site visited on 15 th November, 2014 FAO, Finland Forestry Programme and URT (2013). A fire baseline for Tanzania. Sustainable Forest Management in a Changing Climate [ site visited on 10 th November, 2014 Muller, D and Suess, S (2011). Can the MODIS active fire hotspots be used to monitor vegetation fires in the Lao PDR? [ vegetation_fires_in_laos.pdf] site visited on 4 th November, 2014

8 SADC, SADC Regional Fire Management Programme Document. Draft Proposal [ nagement%20programme%20document-final-6.pdf] site visited on 6 th November, 2014