Abstract:

Fire numbers, burned areas and return intervals in each large scale forest type with average patch area of 500 km² in Heilongjiang Province during the period of 1980 to 1999 were obtained by overlapping the ignition points and areas of 1482 forest fires with the Province's forest type maps in the same period by means of GIS software ARC/INFO. Analysis on the data indicated that the effects of the forest types on fire occurrence and burned areas in the Province were not significant, thus it was not necessary to take forest types into consideration when forest fire hazard was rated on a large scale. Years long human fire suppression activities increased fire return intervals in the region. Comparison was also made on the effects of forest types on fires at various scales.

Key words: Forest fire, Scales, Forest types, Heilongjiang Province