Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Keywords
boreal forest, community observations, remote sensing, Siberia, wildfires
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Arctic Science
Volume
9
Issue
2
First Page
393
Last Page
407
Abstract
The paper is aimed at assessing the associations between the road networks geography and dynamics of wildfire events in the East Siberian boreal forest. We examined the relationship between the function of roads, their use, and management and the wildfire ignition, propagation, and termination during the catastrophic fire season of 2016 in the Irkutsk Region of Russia. Document analysis and interviews were utilized to identify main forest users and road infrastructure functional types and examine wildfire management practices. We combined community observations and satellite remotely sensed data to assess relationships between the location, extent, and timing of wildfires and different types of roads as fire sources, barriers, and suppression access points. Our study confirms a strong spatial relationship between the wildfire ignition points and roads differentiated by their types with the highest probability of fire ignition near forestry roads and the lowest near subsistence roads. Roads also play an important role in wildfire suppression, working as both physical barriers and access points for firefighters. Our research illustrates the importance of local and Indigenous observations along the roads for monitoring and understanding wildfires, including “zombie fires”. It also has practical implications for fire management collectively developed by authorities and local communities.
Department
Department of Geography
Original Publication Date
6-1-2023
Object Description
1 PDF File
DOI of published version
10.1139/as-2021-0042
Repository
UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
Copyright
©2022 The Author(s). CC BY 4.0 License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Kuklina, Vera; Sizov, Oleg; Bogdanov, Victor; Krasnoshtanova, Natalia; Morozova, Arina; and Petrov, Andrey N., "Combining Community Observations And Remote Sensing To Examine The Effects Of Roads On Wildfires In The East Siberian Boreal Forest" (2023). Faculty Publications. 5419.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facpub/5419
Comments
First published in Arctic Science v.9 n.2 (2023) by Canadian Science Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2021-0042