Environmental Forest Fire Danger Rating Systems and Indices around the Globe: A Review

Abstract

The objective of the present review is to analyze and evaluate the most used and well-performing environmental forest fire danger rating systems and indices globally, aiming to the creation of an integrated forest fire danger system for Greece. The analysis emphasizes the core input parameters that have been associated with forest fire danger (i.e., weather, vegetation, topography, and hydrology) and the computational procedure of each system index as well as the categorization of the output values. Online search engines such as Scopus, Google Scholar, WorldWideScience, ScienceDirect, and ResearchGate were used in the search for relevant literature published in scientific journals, manuals, and reports. The retrieved studies were classified and reviewed. Studies were selected for analytically describing the calculation process related to forest fire danger ignition and not being strictly geographically bound. A total of 210 studies were included in the current review, describing 63 forest fire danger systems and indices. These were analyzed and evaluated based on a scoring system. Overall, the top-rated indices were the: Nesterov’s index, Sharples’ index, Keetch and Byram’s drought index, Telicyn logarithmic, and vapor pressure deficit, and the 3rd and the 4th also proved to be the most accurate for fire-prone regions. Remote sensing indices also proved to be promising in forest fire danger estimation.