Comparative Assessment of Vulnerability of Different Land Use to Fire in the University Of Portharcourt

Forests are one of the vital natural resources as it plays an important role in maintaining the environmental balance. Forest fires are one of the major environmental issues affecting forest preservation. Hence it is essential to be aware of the forest fire vulnerability zones of any region, especially the forest areas. The main objective of this study is to develop a geoinformation based model for assessing and monitoring the vulnerability of different land use to fire in the University of Port Harcourt. The study was carried out in the COVID-19 memorial forest project, Rubber plantation and department of Forestry and Wildlife Management arboretum, University of Portharcourt. Data was collected from Landsat 8 imageries using ArcGis Software. Land use changes before and after the incidence of fire was developed, land surface temperature (LST), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and vulnerability map was produced. The result of the study classified three (3) bio physical fire prone variables. These variables include land use cover, land surface temperature and NDVI. Three different land use categories were identified and classified namely forest cover, bare land and anthropogenic alterations. It was observed that before the fire incidence, LST ranges from 24.55oC to 29.88oC, but after the fire incidence there was increase in the minimum (34.86oC) and maximum range (48.88oC). NDVI values range between 0.16 (low) and 0.29 (high). The condition of low vegetation index causes fire. The results showed that the forest cover areas were moderately vulnerable to fire which is an indication that forest cover has a higher probability to lose area to other land use category. The results shows that bio physical variables has an important role in triggering the occurrence of forest fires hence management of fuel material in the study area needs to be improved to prevent the occurrence of fire especially in vulnerable areas.