Russia’s Wildland Fire Data 
in the 
IAASA Database “Land Resources of Russia”

Russia’s Wildland Fire Data in the IAASA Database “Land Resources of Russia”
(Extract of CD-ROM published by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)

Remarks on Source and Copyrights

The CD-ROM production was initiated and supported by the Russian Committee of Systems Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Forestry Project of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The baseline data have been developed at IIASA with considerable contributions from various institutes and organizations within Russia. The complete CD-ROM can be downloaded at:
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/FOR/russia_cd/index.htm

 The fire chapter and the graphs reproduced below can be downloaded at:
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/FOR/russia_cd/forestry_des.htm

Forest fires
By Georgi Korovin,
Center for Problems of Ecology and Productivity of Forests, Russia
Moscow

Fire remains one of the dominating forces determining tree species composition, age structure, and dynamics in boreal forests. Uncontrolled fires have a destructive impact on forest vegetation and fauna; they damage the soil, effect erosion, and pollute the atmosphere with combustion products. Fire used purposefully represents a useful tool for solving numerous forestry tasks, including the control of undesirable vegetation, the promotion of natural regeneration, and the regulation of stocks of forest combustible materials. The ecological role of the fire is complex, and its full exclusion from forest life is impossible and inexpedient. Therefore, it is urgent that an effective system of management by forest fires should be created. According to statistical reports for the period from 1976 to 2000, 11,800 to 36,600 forest fires are recorded each year on an area from 235,000 to 5,340,000 hectares (ha) within the protected territory of the Russian Federation Forest Fund. At the same time, the area of forestlands annually attacked by fire varies from 170,000 to 4,290,000 ha. Crown fires, which result in practically full death of stock, exert the most damage to forest resources. Fires of this type represent from 7.0% to 23% of the total area of forest fund annually attacked by fire. The ground fires are the most widespread, effecting a stock damage of a different intensity. Ground fires represent from 70% to 90% of the annually burning areas. Soil fires are the least spread, but they are the most destructive. Their share is not more than 0.5% of the forest fund area annually attacked by fire.

Most forest fires (more than 85%) are caused by people. The share of natural sources (thunderstorm discharges) makes up about 12% of the total number and 42.0% of the total area of fires. Forest fires of anthropogenic origin make up 77.0% of the forest fires in the Asian part of the country and about 93.0% in the European part.

The spatial structure of forest fires can be described as high fire frequency and small fire areas in the European part of the country and as small fire frequency and extensive fire areas in the Asian part of Russia. Annually, from 24.4% to 66.2% of all appearing fires are recorded, as is from 0.4% to 13.2% of the total area burned by fire in the European part of the Russian Federation. Similarly, for the Asian part, from 33.8% to 75.8% of the total number of fires are recorded, as is from 86.8% to 99.6% of the total forest burned by fire.

 The northern regions of Siberia and the Far East, which account for about a third of the total forest fund area, are in unprotected territory, where fires are neither recorded and nor evolved into statistical materials. Forest fires in these regions are indirectly estimated through state forest inventory data, which include information about burnt areas in all forestry farms and in the subjects of the Russian Federation. By 1 .January 1998, Russia's forest fund included 23.2 million ha of burnt area, and practically half of this area was located within unprotected territory. The share of burnt areas within these territories having delicate ecosystems is twice as high as its corresponding parameter within protected territory. Thus, the ramifications for environmental recovery are serious.

 The lack of a regular accounting of forest fires within unprotected territories and insufficient instrumental control of fire areas within protected territories make an integrated system of forest fire monitoring imperative. To begin with, it is necessary to develop its space component, and to provide the possibility of recording and mapping the large fires over the whole territory of the forest fund.

 The database on forest fires contains three files characterizing spatial distribution of fires, burned area, and burnt forest areas. The first file contains the coordinates of squares making up a 1° x 1° grid. The grid portrays the frequency of fire appearing (average annual fire number per 1 million ha) within each square. The annual number of fires within the air protection zone was taken from a data bank on forest fires for the period of 1987-2000; the ground protection zone data came from forest fire statistics (5-lh form) for the same time period.

The second file includes the coordinates of the same grid squares and the percent of forestlands annually attacked by fire within these squares. The area annually consumed by fire was taken from the same sources as were the data for fire number, and the area of forestlands was taken from the data of the last state forest inventory (1 January 1998).

 The third file contains the square coordinates and the corresponding shares of burnt forests within the forest fund, detected through the state forest inventory data.

Bibliography

 Recommendations on Fire Prevention in Forests and Regulations for Work of Forest Fire Services. 1997. Approved by the Deputy Leader of the Federal Forestry Service of Russia. 17.11.1997. Federal Forest Service, Moscow. [In Russian]

 Status of the Order for Attributing of the Territory to Protection Zones and Areas Including Forest Fund Lands of Russian Federation and Territories Beyond the Forest Fund. 1997. Approved by the Deputy Leader of Federal Forestry Service of Russia. 19.09.1997. Federal Forest Service, Moscow [In Russian]

The Forest Fund of Russia (Data of the State Forest Fund Inventory According to the State by 1.01.1998). 1999. All-Union Scientific Research Center "Lesresurs", Moscow, 649 pp. [In Russian]

Korovin G.N., S.A. Bartalev, and A.I. Belyaev. 1998. Integrated system of forest fire monitoring. "Leshoye khozyajstvo" Magazine 4:45-48. [In Russian]

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