7th Workshop on Forest Fire Management - EARSeL, European ...

EARLY WARNING SYSTEM FOR FIRES IN MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
G. López Saldaña
Remote Sensing Department, CONABIO, Mexico City, Ave. Liga Periférico - Insurgentes Sur 4903,
Tlalpan 14010, Mexico D.F., Mexico
Gerardo.Lopez@conabio.gob.mx
I. Cruz López, R. Ressl
Conabio, Mexico City, Mexico
icruz@conabio.gob.mx; rressl@conabio.gob.mx
Abstract: Forest fires have severe repercussions in Mexico: only in 2008,
more than 200,000 ha were affected, and 25,000 ha were woody vegetation.
The local and global impact this represents motivated Conabio to conduct
a study called “Fires in Mexico - an analysis of their threat to biodiversity,”
and to implement in 1999 an operational program for wildfire
detection using satellite images.
Information about environmental variables before and after fire occurrence
is necessary to support decision-makers; therefore, data about vegetation
conditions based on NDVI anomaly is provided to show areas where fire is
more likely to spread. In addition, a fire risk index based on vegetation and
soil moisture is now developed as a pilot project, and the post-fire analysis
is carried out mapping burnt areas using a daily-basis identification
approach.
The Early Warning System for Fires has been providing active fire locations
since 1999 and will provide valuable information in near-real time for all
stages about fire events for Mexico and Central America.
1 - Introduction
Between 1998 and June 2009, the annual average area affected by fires in
Mexico was approximately 210,295 ha, with a maximum in 1998 of almost
495,000 ha. The average affected area per fire was 24.83 ha for the same
period (CONAFOR, 2009).
Traditionally, fire protection and early fire alerts in Mexico are performed in
a conventional manner by tower observations, which are by far insufficient
to cover the entire 22.75 million ha currently under protection. In the last
years, airborne and satellite observations have also been used, the latter
mainly provided by the Direct Readout (DR) station of the National
Commission for the Knowledge and Use of the Biodiversity (CONABIO). The
aim of this paper is to show the variety of products generated in near-real
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