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INTEGRATED APPROACH USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM AND MULTI CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS METHOD FOR FOREST FIRE RISK MAPPING IN NORTHWESTERN ALGERIA

In recent years, the forest ecosystems of Mediterranean basin countries such as Algeria have experienced massive degradation as a result of fires that continue to destroy forest areas from year to year. Yearly, 36000 ha are burned due to fires, with over 13414 ha burned in 2017. Approximately 29 percent of Algeria's forest cover is located in the western part of the country, where fires continue to be the most threatening factor. With regard to this critical situation, actions must be taken as urgently as possible to fight against this phenomenon. The assessment and the mapping of the Forest Fires Risk (FFR) to highlight vulnerable areas appear to be the most efficient ways. Last years, several models were developed to assess the forest fire risk each of which involves a certain number of parameters which influence differently on the fire spread. The evolution of geospatial techniques such as geographic information systems (GIS) and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods have effectively improved solving this type of problem. In this paper we aim to assess the risk of forest fires using GIS-based MCDA model. The approach consists, in the first step, of a spatialization of the FFR parameters by integrating different factors into a GIS. In the second step, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) MCDA method was used to calculate et assign weights to each factor to produce a FFR potential map. The obtained FFR map shows that 28.87% and 25% of the study area is dominated by Moderate and High FFR. The spatial analysis of the produced map with the actual fires limit reveals a significant correlation through an overall accuracy of 62.60%. This study is carried out in the forest of Nesmoth located in the Mascara province in northwestern Algeria. The obtained results show that the combination of GIS and MCDA methods can be a very useful tool for forest managers and decision-makers in reducing fire risk.