Fuzzy AHP for forest fire risk modeling

Purpose - The purpose of study is linked to management and policy-making strategies, such as forest management, land use planning and sustainable management of natural resources. It aims to help prevent forest fire by taking precautions. It also aims to be helpful for authorities coping during the event of occurrence of fire. Design/methodology/approach - The methodology paradigm applied here is based on knowledge-based and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) techniques. Knowledge-based criteria involve topographic and different themes for risk assessment. The assignment of value given to equation is significant due to its importance. Findings - Results are in strong agreement with actual fire occurrences in the past years. The risk zones are identified according to past occurrence of fire. The gradients of low- to high-risk zones are according to fuel, topographic features and weather conditions. Direction and aspect value were taken accordingly. Originality/value - The paper presents forest fire risk zones designed on knowledge-based information. Crisp and fuzzy AHP approaches were applied to improve the efficacy of the model. The mapping results were in accordance with actual fire occurrences in the past years.