Risk of climate change impacting on drought and forest fire based on the spatial analysis and satellite data

Drought is considered a serious disaster after floods and typhoons and is tending to increase frequency and intensity due to climate change on a global scale. In addition, droughts also cause large and small fires that occur daily around the world, damaging the forest, the forest ecosystem and having a significant impact on the economy, society and people. This paper presents the situation of forest fires in U Minh Ha forest of Ca Mau province, which is the last land area in the south of Vietnam. The study used satellite imagery processing, which combined spatial analysis to identify areas of fire sensitivity, in the face of drought risk associated with climate change in the dry season in 2016. AHP hierarchy analysis was performed using factors such as surface temperature, leaf moisture, vegetation cover, vegetation density, distance to water sources, distance to residential areas and the distance to the fire protection works. The results show that in the study area, the zone with high fire sensitivity accounts for nearly half of the forest area and is distributed in the southwest. Study results are useful for planning strategies to protect forest resources against the drought risk caused by climate change that is increasing now.