Himalayan Forest Fires Risk Management:A Geospatial Approach

Forest fires have received increased public attention globally during last few years due to their significant short and long-term threat to forests ecosystem and to public safety and property. The Himalayan region of India are subjected to repeated annual fires, and because of inaccessibility only conventional firefighting techniques are used, which are found ineffective. Fire risk assessment requires the use of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) for processing and displaying of spatial information in a timely and cost effective manner. An attempt has been made through this study, which has broadly aimed at forest fire risk assessment and modeling, for planning and management in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh (India) to take pre-emptive measures in fire control management. The study may be targeted to forest managers, landscape planners, academicians of following fields i.e. Disaster Management, Natural Resource Management, Earth Science, Ecology, forestry etc. It may be the pioneer publication to access in comprehensive way to forest fire management with geospatial modelling in Indian Himalayan forests.