Exploring key drivers of forest fires in the Mole National Park of Ghana using geospatial tools

Martin Kyereh Domfeh,Nana Ekow Nkwa Sey,Amprofi Ampah Amproche,Eric Mensah Mortey,Prince Antwi‑Agyei,Emmanuel Kwesi Nyantakyi 대한공간정보학회 2023 Spatial Information Research Vol.31 No.1

Ghana’s forest and wildlife reserves are depleting at an alarming rate and hence, the Mole National Park which is considered the oldest and largest wildlife protected area in Ghana is no exception. Bush fires are a major contributor to this menace. Fire hotspot prediction and mapping using satellite data provides a better alternative to monitoring and addressing wildfires compared to the observation of smoke emission which is the conventional tool used to detect forest fires in most parts of the country. This study sought to probe into fire incidences within the park using geospatial tools with an emphasis on climatic variables and anthropogenic activities as drivers. The research shows a weak positive correlation for fire counts to climatic variables (temperature and precipitation), giving credence to human-induced factors as majorly responsible while climatic conditions serve as a background catalyst to these fire incidences. Forest fire counts and their associated burnt area statistics between 2002 and 2019 are also presented. To reduce human-induced forest fires, this study recommends several interventions to help manage the challenge of wildfires at the reserve while highlighting the essential role of GIS and remote-sensing tools in monitoring and managing wildfires within protected areas.

Fuel Management and Experimental Wildfire Effects on Forest Structure, Tree Mortality and Soil Chemistry in Tropical Dry Forests in Ghana

Barnes, Victor R,Swaine, Mike D,Pinard, Michelle A,Kyereh, Boateng Institute of Forest Science 2017 Journal of Forest Science Vol.33 No.3

The effects of application of fuel-reduction treatment in wildfire management has not been tested in dry forests of Ghana. Therefore, the short-term ecological effects of prescribed burning and hand thinning treatments followed by experimental wildfire were investigated in degraded forests and Tectona grandis forest plantations in two forest reserves of different levels of dryness in Ghana. The results showed that more trees were killed in prescribed burning (average of 41% in degraded forest and 18% in plantations) than hand thinning (7.2% in degraded forests and 8% in plantation). More tree seedlings were also killed in prescribed burning (72%) than hand thinning (47%). The mortality of trees and seedlings were greater in Worobong South forest, a less dry forest reserve than the Afram Headwaters forest, a drier forest reserve. Fuel treatment especially prescribed burning compared to the control reduced wildfire effects on forest canopy particularly in the less dry forest and tree mortality especially in the drier forest. Prescribed burning temporarily increased pH, exchangeable potassium (52%) and available phosphorus (82%) in the surface soils of the entire plots. The two fuel treatment methods did not have much influence on basal area, organic matter and total nitrogen. Nevertheless, they were able to reduce the adverse wildfire effects on soil pH, exchangeable potassium, available phosphorus, organic matter and total nitrogen concentrations. Fuel treatments therefore have potential application in dry forest management in Ghana due to their ability to retain important forest ecological traits after a wildfire incidence.

Fuel Management in Ghana's Tropical Forests: Implications on Implementation Cost, Fuel Loading and Fire Behaviour

Barnes, Victor Rex,Swaine, Mike D.,Pinard, Michelle A.,Kyereh, Boateng Institute of Forest Science 2020 Journal of Forest Science Vol.36 No.4

Fuel management can play enormous role in fire management in tropical dry forests. However, unlike the temperate forests, knowledge on implications of different fuel management methods in tropical forests is often inadequate. In this study, the implications of prescribed burning and hand thinning treatments on implementation cost, fuel loading and post-treatment fire behaviour were tested and compared in degraded forests and teak plantations in two forest reserves of different levels of dryness in Ghana. The study found that prescribed burning was less expensive (62.02 US Dollars ha-1) than hand thinning (95.37 US Dollars ha-1). The study also indicated that the two fuel management methods were able to reduce fuel loading in degraded forests and teak plantations. However, prescribed burning was more effective in reducing fuel loading than hand thinning. While the relative change of fuel reduction was 13% higher in prescribed burning than the hand thinning in degraded forest, it was 41% higher in prescribed burning than hand thinning in teak plantations. The fire behaviour of post-treatment experimental fire was also lower in prescribed burning than the hand thinning and control plots. Fuel management, therefore, has a great potential in fire management in degraded forests and teak plantations in Ghana.

Fuel Management and Experimental Wildfire Effects on Forest Structure, Tree Mortality and Soil Chemistry in Tropical Dry Forests in Ghana

Victor R Barnes,Mike D Swaine,Michelle A Pinard,Boateng Kyereh 강원대학교 산림과학연구소 2017 Journal of Forest Science Vol.33 No.3

The effects of application of fuel-reduction treatment in wildfire management has not been tested in dry forests of Ghana. Therefore, the short-term ecological effects of prescribed burning and hand thinning treatments followed by experimental wildfire were investigated in degraded forests and Tectona grandis forest plantations in two forest reserves of different levels of dryness in Ghana. The results showed that more trees were killed in prescribed burning (average of 41% in degraded forest and 18% in plantations) than hand thinning (7.2% in degraded forests and 8% in plantation). More tree seedlings were also killed in prescribed burning (72%) than hand thinning (47%). The mortality of trees and seedlings were greater in Worobong South forest, a less dry forest reserve than the Afram Headwaters forest, a drier forest reserve. Fuel treatment especially prescribed burning compared to the control reduced wildfire effects on forest canopy particularly in the less dry forest and tree mortality especially in the drier forest. Prescribed burning temporarily increased pH, exchangeable potassium (52%) and available phosphorus (82%) in the surface soils of the entire plots. The two fuel treatment methods did not have much influence on basal area, organic matter and total nitrogen. Nevertheless, they were able to reduce the adverse wildfire effects on soil pH, exchangeable potassium, available phosphorus, organic matter and total nitrogen concentrations. Fuel treatments therefore have potential application in dry forest management in Ghana due to their ability to retain important forest ecological traits after a wildfire incidence.

Deep learning-based framework for vegetation hazard monitoring near powerlines

Nana Ekow Nkwa Sey,Mark Amo‑Boateng,Martin Kyereh Domfeh,Amos T. Kabo‑Bah,Prince Antwi‑Agyei 대한공간정보학회 2023 Spatial Information Research Vol.31 No.5

The increasing popularity of drones has led to their adoption by electric utility companies to monitor intrusive vegetation near powerlines. The study proposes a deep learning-based detection framework compatible with drones for monitoring vegetation encroachment near powerlines which estimates vegetation health and detects powerlines. Aerial image pairs from a drone camera and a commercial-grade multispectral sensor were captured and processed into training and validation datasets which were used to train a Generative Adversarial Network (Pix2Pix model) and a Convolutional Neural Network (YoLov5 model). The Pix2Pix model generated satisfactory synthetic image translations from coloured images to Look-Up Table (LUT) maps whiles the YoLov5 obtained good performance for detecting powerlines in aerial images with precision, recall, mean Average Precision (mAP) @0.5, and mAP0.5:0.95 values are 0.82, 0.76, 0.79 and 0.56 respectively. The proposed vegetation detection framework was able to detect locations of powerlines and generate NDVI estimates represented as LUT maps directly from RGB images captured from aerial images which could serve as a preliminary and affordable alternative to relatively expensive multispectral sensors which are not readily available in developing countries for monitoring and managing the presence and health of trees and dense vegetation within powerline corridors.