Evaluation of wildfire occurrence along high voltage power line by remote sensing data: A case study in Xianning, Hubei, China

In winter and spring, wildfire along the power line is the key hazard for State Grid Corporation of China in Hubei province. Remote sensing has been proved an effective technique for wildfire surveillance. This paper fused remote sensing data, meteorological data, and topography data to evaluate wildfire occurrence possibility along high voltage power line. According to the correlations among these factors, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was employed to evaluate these factors' weight and correlation function. The historical fire accidents along high voltage power lines in Xianning were used to validate the evaluation. The experimental results showed that the vegetation coverage, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation are influential on wildfire accidents in this area. The evaluated wildfire occurrence results were used for the local company's routine fire patrol arrangement.