Spatio-temporal Dynamics of bush fires in Mont Péko national Park (West-Côte d'Ivoire)
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Date
2020-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
European Scientific Journal
Abstract
Following the 2016 break-out of illegally settled populations in Mont
Péko national Park due to the political-military crises of 2002 to 2011, the
phenomenon of uncontrolled wildfires reached alarming proportions. The
purpose of this study was to determine, from the combined use of remote
sensing and geographic information systems, the evolution of the intensity and
the spaces traversed by the fires in this protected area between 2016 and 2018.
For this purpose, two Landsat 8 satellite images from 2016 (before fires) and
2018 (after fires) were used. The results of this work reveal that 49.63% of the
total area of the protected area, located in its North and South-East part, was
covered by fires. Analysis of the distribution of fires across the different land
use classes reveals a greater occurrence of fires in the crop and fallow class
(10 519.38 ha) compared to the forest class (3 963.87 ha) and the class of bare
soils and rocky outcrops (538.02 ha). Overall, the severity of fires in the park
following the study period is moderate.
Description
Keywords
Fire severity, Normalized Burn Ratio, burned areas, Mont Péko, Côte d'Ivoire, CCBAD
Citation
http://dx.doi.org/10.19044/esj.2020.v16n3p48