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Vegetation Fires and Entropy Variations in Myanmar

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Vegetation Fires and Pollution in Asia

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Abstract

Vegetation fires are most common in South/Southeast Asian countries. For effective mitigation and control of fires, it is essential to quantify the spatial and temporal patterns, including the variability. In this study, we use Shannon’s entropy measure to quantify the heterogeneity or a degree of randomness in fires in Myanmar. We used VIIRS 375 m and MODIS 1 km satellite data to quantify the spatial and temporal variations in fire counts (FC) and burnt areas (BA). VIIRS fire analysis suggested the mean FC from 2012 to 2020 for Myanmar with 34,7930 FC per year, with the highest 403,292 in 2013 and a minimum of 254,106 in 2018. Most of the fires with high intensity (FRP) occurred in the dry season (February-March-April), with the highest intensity in March (~ 203,897MW). Temporal variations in BA suggested an average of 655,296.85 (km2) BA per year, with the highest in forests (411,125.75 km2), followed by croplands (159,908.93 km2) and grasslands (84,262.16 km2). Results suggested forest fires with higher entropies than agricultural fires. Specifically, the forest fires in central Myanmar bordering the southern Sagaing, Shan north, and Mandalay and Magway regions had higher entropies. Further, entropy values did not show significant variations with the elevation, except in northern Kachin, Shan (east), northwestern Sagaing, and forest lands in the Chin state and along Magway and Rakhine regions. The entropy index indicates variability and is a measure of disorder or a degree of uncertainty, such as randomness, unevenness, irregularity, and complexity. Thus, controlling the fires in regions with high entropy can be challenging. The results also identify hotspots of vegetation fires with less entropy for effective fire control and management.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the NASA Land Cover/Land Use Change Program, South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative project to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA

    Krishna Prasad Vadrevu

  2. University of Alabama, Huntsville, USA

    Pranith Salikineedi & Aditya Eaturu

  3. University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Sumalika Biswas

Authors
  1. Krishna Prasad Vadrevu
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  2. Pranith Salikineedi
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  3. Aditya Eaturu
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  4. Sumalika Biswas
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Correspondence to Krishna Prasad Vadrevu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA

    Krishna Prasad Vadrevu

  2. Center for Environmental Science in Saitama, Kazo, Saitama, Japan

    Toshimasa Ohara

  3. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Chris Justice

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Vadrevu, K.P., Salikineedi, P., Eaturu, A., Biswas, S. (2023). Vegetation Fires and Entropy Variations in Myanmar. In: Vadrevu, K.P., Ohara, T., Justice, C. (eds) Vegetation Fires and Pollution in Asia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29916-2_4

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