Temporal and Spatial Variation of Forest Fires and Factors Analysis in Zhejiang Province

Based on MODIS image data of forest fires during 2001-2018 in Zhejiang province, temporal and spatial variation was studied by logistic and random forest model, combined with meteorology, vegetation, terrain, economy, population and infrastructure. The results showed that there were 1866 forest fires in the province, with an average annual of 104 times. The spatial distribution of forest fires was concentrated in the southern Zhejiang, such as central and eastern parts of Wenzhou and the intersection with Lishui city and the middle of Lishui. Forest fires mainly occurred in October, November, December, January, February, March and April, accounting more than 95.28% of the total. The most important factors for forest fire occurrence by random forest were ordered by annual average temperature, elevation, annual average precipitation, river density, monthly vegetation coverage, slope, vegetation coverage of previous year, GDP and road density. There were positive relation of forest fires with daily average air pressure, monthly vegetation coverage, aspect index, slope, daily maximum surface temperature, road density, GDP, residential density, and river density, while significant negative correlation with annual precipitation and elevation.