University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) - Research portal
Gewählte Doctoral Thesis:
Mortimer Maximilian Mueller
(2021):
Waldbrand-Dokumentation und Analyse von durch Blitzschlag ausgelösten Waldbränden als Beitrag für ein integriertes System zur Abschätzung der Waldbrandgefahr in Österreich.
Doctoral Thesis - Institut für Waldbau (WALDBAU),
BOKU-Universität für Bodenkultur,
pp 147.
UB BOKU
obvsg
FullText
- Abstract:
- The research work has focused on several aspects of forest fire management in the Alpine country of Austria. Since the beginning of the documentation of forest fire events in 2008 about 7000 wildfires have been described and recorded in a database. For the first time, this database allowed a characterisation of the Austrian forest fire regime. Especially the role of forest fires caused by lightnings was analyzed. It was found that 15% of all annual forest fires in Austria are caused by lightning strikes. The spatial and temporal occurrence of lightning caused fires in terms of annual and diurnal variation, topographic parameters, and main vegetation types affected was evaluated. An analysis of the lightning characteristics showed that positively charged cloud-to-ground lightnings ignited relatively more fires than negative discharges. Higher values of meteorological fire weather indices correlated with a higher chance of lightning fire ignition, which underscores the importance of local drought effects. Based on these findings a spatial high-resolution (100 x 100 m) map of the lightning fire hazard was developed. This map together with other datasets was used for the design of a prototype of an Integrated Fire Danger assessment System (IFDS) for Austria. The meteorological conditions were represented by fire weather indices calculated on a daily basis. Data layers on the human influence on fire ignition and a high-resolution map of the vegetation types and topography were also embedded in the prototype. Different weighting approaches of the used data layers allowed to analyze different scenarios. It was shown that some of these scenarios performed significantly better than fire weather indices based solely on meteorological parameters.
- Betreuer: Vacik Harald
- 1. Berater: Formayer Herbert