FOREST FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT IN TEMPISQUE RIVER BASIN, COSTA RICA

Forest fires are problems that cause environmental damage to ecosystems. One of the biggest impacts is on the atmosphere and their effects on climatic change, a situation that exacerbates global problems perpetrated on planet life. Historically, fires are recognized as a constant agent of change on the natural landscape. Therefore, fire studies are important because of the significant effect of fire on vegetation, fauna and soils and the increased danger of desertification, leading to socioeconomic problems. This article has as its objective to determine the risk before forest fires on the Tempisque River Basin in Costa Rica from explanatory variables such as proximity to roads, types of land uses, fire outbreaks, isolation and altitude above sea level, using Multicriteria Evaluation (NDE) modeling techniques in a Geographic Information System. As the term risk refers to a condition of probability, this article recreates scenarios where a fire could occur, which correlate with events that have occurred in previous years. It should be noted that the variable of wind is not considered as a fire-scattering factor since the objective of this study is to identify places with conditions already favorable to fires without a contributing factor in their distribution.