Linkage Between the Forest Fires and the Meteorological Parameters During the Current Climatic Regime Using Spatial Clustering, Regression, and Combination Matrix Analysis

The present study has been carried out to assess the spatial behaviour of forest fire count (FFC) data and Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) derived meteorological parameters in Uttar Pradesh to explore the linkages amongst them. Ten years (2005–2014) of forest fire event data and of meteorological data have been analysed using GIS overlay, ordinary least square (OLS) regression, increment ratio (IR) and combination matrix analysis (CMA) to find spatial congruence and causal linkage between FFC and meteorological variables. The results show that approximately 80% of total forest fires occur in March and April only. And, at ten days interval, 65% FFCs were recorded from 21 March to 20 April only. With OLS and IR methods, we found a linkage between FFC and rainfall, relative humidity, solar radiation, and temperature. In contrast, CMA indicated a periodicity in the FFCs of the highest category.