GIS-based forest fire risk assessment for the Belait District

Widespread forest fires have been a regular event in the Southeast Asian region particularly during dry periods. Brunei Darussalam, as one of the Southeast Asian countries, loses hundreds of hectares of forests every year, and more. Fire behaviour varies under different conditions and the nature of the forests. The degrees of challenge and impact posed by fires differ with types of forest cover and soil. This paper therefore attempts to assess fire risk in the Belait District by considering different fire contributory factors. This task was assisted by the application of a Geographical Information System (GIS). In this study, factors such as forest cover type, soil types, distance from road, proximity of settlements and population, are derived and classified for the study area. A fire risk map was then developed using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Suitability Analysis tools in GIS. The outcomes showed that the high fire risk areas are at the northern part of the district and aligned with the shoreline, whereas low risk areas are found at the lower part of the district. The result also demonstrates the potential of integrating AHP and suitability analysis tools for fire risk assessment studies.