Spatial analysis of vegetation fires in vacant lots in Araxá, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Fire in vacant lots is featured as hazardous type event related to human behavior. These events account for burning urban-zone vegetation, a fact that puts the local population in danger, leads to the emission of polluting gases, and even puts the patrimony at risk. The aim of the present study is to analyze the spatial distribution of wildfire in the vegetation of vacant lots in 2019 and 2020, in Araxá City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The used data were collected from incident reports by Minas Gerais Military Fire Department. The study followed quantitative methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), based on space-time statistics, to detect occurrence clusters through a retrospective permutation method. Based on the results, fire cases in vacant lots happen more often between June and October, during the drought period. If one takes the whole year into account, those were the months accounting for the highest detection of clusters of fire events. In 2019, these events were recorded within shorter time intervals, and they were mainly observed in the city’s Northern portion. On the other hand, in 2020, these events were more often recorded in the Southern part of the city. This finding may point out that the vegetation cover consumed by wildfire within 1-year period-of-time does not recover to the extent of suffering with the same effects of burnings in the following year; this process results in different incidence sites. The space-time analysis can highlight places for straight intervention by the public power, and help allocating resources and preventing the impacts of these events.