International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B-YF. Istanbul 2004 
  
2. THE AREA OF STUDY 
In the area, that is 4.079 hectare and is located in the boundaries 
of the of the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical — National Park in 
Ecebat in Canakkale, a fire broke out and was extinguished in 
about three days . The area of study is located between the 
following coordinates: 40° 41° 32°" - 40° 22’ 45” northern 
parallels, and 26° 12° 57°°-26° 25° 23” eastern meridians as 
they are shown in figure 1. 674 hectare of the burned area was 
the destroyed area, and 3.375 hectare of it was the productive 
forest. 
  
   
A y u +, $ 
Y & & & & 
4480001 - 
447000 
| 
4460«cN 
4450 - 
4440 | 
443000 + ae + 
10 0 10 20 
Kilometers 
  
Figure 1. Location of the area of study. 
2.1 Vegetation Type 
The Gallipoli Peninsula is located over an area of 1684.02 km2 
and is rich in forest resources. 23% of the total area in the forest 
is consisted mostly of pine trees together with other species 
with leaves and groups of bushes. This kind of vegetation is 
especially susceptible to fire. 
2.2 Climate 
The climatic regime determines the vegetation in a particular 
region, and hence plays a dominant role in creating areas prone 
to fire. The study area has the Region of Marmara’s climate that 
has the peculiarity of transition from the Region of Black Sea’s 
climate to that of the Region of Mediterranean. In this climate 
type, it is cold in winter, hot in summer and rainy in spring and 
autumn. 
Annual Low Rain 475.8 mm 
Annual Low Temperature 14.4 C 
Annual Relative Humidity 80 % 
Annual Wind Speed 4.5 m/sec 
The Faster Wind Direction South-South/East 30 m/sec 
Even though the annual wind speed is about 4.5 m/ sec, it was 
about 75 km/ sec. on the day the fire broke out. 
34 
2.3 Topography 
Topography is an important physiographic factor, which is 
related to wind behaviour, and hence affects the fire proneness 
of the area. Fire travels most rapidly up slopes and the least 
rapidly down slopes. The historical peninsula has an uneven 
land structure. Its structure is mountainous faulted and is 
consisted of slopes. 
2.4 Distance from roads 
Forests that are accidental / man-made can be resulted by the 
movements of humans, animals and vehicles. Thus, forests that 
are near roads are fire prone. Many roads traverse the study 
area. This makes people and animals grazing there the cause of 
fire in the forest. 
2.5 Distance from settlements 
Forests located near settlements can be said to be more fire 
prone since the people living there can cause an accidental fire. 
Crowded settlements are located within the forest in the study 
area, so they can cause forest fires. 
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS 
3.1 Data 
The images of Landsat TM in 1992 before the fire and the 
images of that in 1998 after the fire were used for defining and 
identifying the burned area and for estimating the vegetation 
loss. Besides the satellite data, the topographic maps were used 
in this project. The data collected for this study area were the 
following: forest type map, vegetation map, elevation, slope, 
aspect, standard topographic map and climate data (average 
wind, rainfall data, and temperature). 
3.2 Methods 
Standard topographic maps at a scale of 1:25 000 were digitized 
and DEM were produced for the study area (figure 2). 
  
Figure 2. DEM