Identified main fire hotspots and seasons in Côte AUTHORS: Tionhonkélé D. Soro1 d’Ivoire (West Africa) using MODIS fire data Moussa Koné1 Aya B. N’Dri1 Evelyne T. N’Datchoh2 Biomass burning has become more frequent and widespread worldwide, with a significant proportion AFFILIATIONS: 1Laboratory of Ecology and occurring in tropical Africa. Fire dynamics have been generally studied at global or regional scales. At Sustainable Development, Faculty of local scale, however, fire impacts can be severe or catastrophic, suggesting local analyses are warranted. Natural Sciences, Nangui Abrogoua University, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire This study aimed to characterise the spatio-temporal variations of vegetation fires and identify the main 2Atmospheric Physics Laboratory, fire hotspots in Côte d’Ivoire, a country of West Africa, one of the world’s burn centres. Using MODIS- Faculty of Structure of Matter and Technology Sciences, Félix derived fire data over a 10-year period (2007–2016), the number of fire days, active fires and fire density Houphouët Boigny University of were assessed across the entire country. In the southern part dominated by forests, fire activity was low. Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire Three main fire hotspots were identified between 2°30’–8°30’W and 7°00’–10°30’N in the North-West, CORRESPONDENCE TO: North-East and Central areas all dominated by savannas. In these areas, Bafing, Bounkani and Hambol Tionhonkélé Soro regions recorded the highest fire activity where fire density was 0.4±0.02, 0.28±0.02 and 0.18±0.01 fires/km²/year, respectively. At national scale, the annual fire period stretched from October to April with EMAIL:
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