Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2020 number 5S

The spread of wildfires in the central part of Western Cisbaikalia in the period 1975-2016 is considered. The study em phases a steady tendency for the fire danger of forests to increase as well as an increase of the number of fires and affected areas. The years of a maximal pyrogenic impact on geosystems are revealed. A correlative analysis of Earth remote sensing data was made to compile the schematic map of the spatial structure of catastrophic fires in 2015 and determine the areas affected by fire and the mean velocities of the spread of the fire front. Based on results of field investigations, examples of the local impact of fires on the structure and rehabilitation dynamics of geosystems are provided. For differentiating the possible sources of fires, a statistical analysis of meteorological data is made. It is concluded that the last five years are characterized by long periods of extreme fire danger, and a low-water level on rivers has been recorded. It is found that fires of a catastrophic nature as re corded in 2003 and 2015 occurred at the minimum of thunderstorm activity.