Evaluating forest fires using tree parameters collected by i-Tree

Abstract

The size of forest fires is increasingly becoming bigger due to climate change. Forest structure contains a fuel ladder, which provides continuous fuels from the ground to the crown, is prone to fire. Taking such forest fire characteristics into consideration, we identified tree parameters that were significantly related to forest fires by employing a common forest survey technique called i-Tree. The field campaign was conducted at a natural forest of Oumu town in Hokkaido where a natural forest fire happened in 2019. The tree parameters related to forest fires are selected through the random forest modeling. Based on the results, we developed a model to estimate forest fire potential with only two parameters, tree height and diameter at breadth height.