Análisis del comportamiento de incendios forestales en la cuenca del río Paute mediante sensores remotos

Abstract

Due to the increase in forest fires in Ecuador and to the great importance land cover has in the regulation of the hydrological cycles in the Paute River Basin, an analysis of the behavior of burned areas using remote sensing, was performed. For the intended purpose, ortho-photos corresponding to the year 2010-2011 were selected, as well as Landsat 8 satellite imagery for the 2013-2014 time period, with the purpose of identifying the places with the greatest presence of burned patches. Afterwards, the variables that were more significantly associated to the occurrence of forest fires were determined; these variables were: (1) the closest elevation value, (2) the distance to the closest road, (3), the distance to an intervened ecosystem, and (4) the average elevation value; nevertheless, these variables weren’t sufficient for generating a prediction model. The distance at which clustering is more intense is 20 Km, and the sites with the greatest burn density did not present similar characteristics regarding vegetation cover dominance. The minimum surface area of the burned patches identified was 21.38 Km². The most affected areas of forest and protective vegetation (ABVP) were: (1) the northern portion of Moya-Molón, (2) northeast of Guarongo, (3) southwest of Sunsun-Yanasacha, (4) Yanuncay-Irquis, (5) west of Machángara-Tomebamba, (6) northeast of Allcuquiro, and (7) north of Dudas-Mazar.