Analysis of the temporal, spatial and trend incidence of fire in biomes and conservation units of Brazil

Abstract

Brazil has extensive plant formations throughout its territory that are affected by burning occurrences, necessitating space-time monitoring and studies that relate its performance to the biomes and protected areas of the country. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to analyze the temporal and spatial behavior of the occurrences of fires from 2003 to 2017 in the Brazilian biomes: Amazonia, Caatinga, Cerrado, Mata Atlântica, Pantanal and Pampa, including incidences in the areas of Conservation Units, possible patterns of distribution of forest fire outbreaks, as well as the statistical trend of its occurrence. Geospatial data were used from 2003 to 2017 of the AQUA_M-T reference satellite obtained from the National Space Research Institute and from the Conservation Units provided by the Ministry of the Environment. Statistically, the Kernel algorithm was applied to analyze the spatial distribution from the mean of the time series studied, and the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test, also considering its Long Range Persistence to verify the tendency of the occurrence. It was observed that the Amazon and Cerrado biomes have, respectively, the largest fires, with the Cerrado having a larger area burned. Consequently, the Conservation Units located in these biomes had a higher amount of fires. The tendency statistical analysis indicated that the growth of the occurrence of fire has seasonality in all the biomes, with the Pampa being characterized by a natural condition. Therefore, the study allowed to quantify and to identify, spatially, the largest fires in the Brazilian Biomes, as well as in the Conservation Units in each respective biome for the studied series, serving as a basis for fire prevention and control measures, mainly in which that have the highest occurrences in the country.

Keywords:
Environmental monitoring; Protected areas; Geo-processing; Mann-Kendall test