Application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Forest Fire Risk Mapping, Northwester of Algeria

The coastal region of Chlef (northwester of Algeria) suffers from both forest fires and the lack of scientific research in the subject, so in an effort to remedy that, the choice came to Dahra’s municipality for a GIS and Remote sensing-based study for mapping forest fire risk. The model used combines six wildfire-causing factors for demarcating the forest fire risk zone map. Use a multitude of software and rely on multiple sources for data collection, the following variables were derived for the study area: vegetation moisture, slope, aspect, elevation, distance from roads, and the vicinity of settlements in the form of weighted layers. The result of the established modelling is the map of the fire risk index, where 50.5 % of the study area represents a high to very high risk.