Subsides to the creation of a regional model of forest fire hazard: Taquari River Springs Park, MS—A case study

Using map algebra, in the GIS (geographic information system) environment, this study integrates the B-RAMS, Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Models Software (CPTEC, 2005) climate model data with remote sensing data, intending to obtain a wildfire hazard map. The Taquari River Springs Park (TRSP) was chosen as a case study, due to the presence of springs which are considered important contributors to the Upper Paraguay River Basin, and it also contains essential remnants of the Cerrado Biome. The B-RAMS model has provided relative humidity, components of the horizontal wind and temperature. The TRSP land cover was identified by object oriented classification of a LANDSAT ETM+ image, supported by field observations. From the land cover phytophysionomic type characterization, a forest wildfire fuel map has been elaborated. The integration of the different maps has been made using a GIS, and a new map with its associated GIS database was generated showing the most vulnerable zones to wildfire hazard.