TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial heterogeneity of factors influencing forest fires size in northern Mexico
AU - Perez-Verdin, Gustavo
AU - Marquez-Linares, Marco Antonio
AU - Salmeron-Macias, Maricela
N1 - Funding Information:
Project funding: This study was funded by the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) project # SIP 20110943– CONACYT, and COFAA.
PY - 2014/6
Y1 - 2014/6
N2 - In Mexico, forest fires are strongly influenced by environmental, topographic, and anthropogenic factors. A government-based database covering the period 2000-2011 was used to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the factors influencing forest fire size in the state of Durango, Mexico. Ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regression models were fit to identify the main factors as well as their spatial influence on fire size. Results indicate that fire size is greatly affected by distance to roads, distance to towns, precipitation, temperature, and a population gravity index. The geographically weighted model was better than the ordinary least squares model. The improvement of the former is due to the influence of factors that were found to be non-stationary. These results suggest that geographic location determines the influence of a factor on fire size. While the models can be greatly improved with additional information, the study suggests the need to adopt fire management policies to more efficiently reduce the effect of anthropogenic factors. These policies may include more training for landowners who use fire for clearing, closure of roads, application of thinning, prescribed burning, and fire breaks in perimeters adjacent to roads.
AB - In Mexico, forest fires are strongly influenced by environmental, topographic, and anthropogenic factors. A government-based database covering the period 2000-2011 was used to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the factors influencing forest fire size in the state of Durango, Mexico. Ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regression models were fit to identify the main factors as well as their spatial influence on fire size. Results indicate that fire size is greatly affected by distance to roads, distance to towns, precipitation, temperature, and a population gravity index. The geographically weighted model was better than the ordinary least squares model. The improvement of the former is due to the influence of factors that were found to be non-stationary. These results suggest that geographic location determines the influence of a factor on fire size. While the models can be greatly improved with additional information, the study suggests the need to adopt fire management policies to more efficiently reduce the effect of anthropogenic factors. These policies may include more training for landowners who use fire for clearing, closure of roads, application of thinning, prescribed burning, and fire breaks in perimeters adjacent to roads.
KW - Durango
KW - Mexico
KW - geographically weighted regression
KW - ordinary least squares
KW - stationarity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84899686280&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11676-014-0460-3
DO - 10.1007/s11676-014-0460-3
M3 - Artículo
SN - 1007-662X
VL - 25
SP - 291
EP - 300
JO - Journal of Forestry Research
JF - Journal of Forestry Research
IS - 2
ER -