Abstract: To investigate the factors responsible for forest fires in major cities of southern Fujian from 2000-2010, logistic regression model and ArcGIS application were carried out. Climate, vegetation, terrain, population density, and socioeconomic factors were considered in this study. Watchtower locations and fire management divisions were also analyzed. The results revealed that 12 factors including elevation, slope, daily minimum relative humidity, the distance to railway, the distance to highway, the distance to the nearest residential area, daily maximum surface temperature, daily minimum surface temperature, daily precipitation, sunshine duration, daily maximum temperature and GDP were significantly correlated with forest fires. The forecast accuracy of the regression model exhibited 74.0%. The fire danger grading with the model was also investigated and found that areas of high fire dangers took up 33.58% and these fire dangers were distributed unevenly. Watchtower site selection results showed that visible rates of traditional way, 20 km × 20 km gridding, and 10 km × 10 km gridding were 25.63%, 42.25% and 63.38% respectively for the high fire danger area. As for the division of forest fire protection and extinguishing area, the results form AHP showed that weights of the distances to high fire risk areas, roads and residential areas were 0.620, 0.284 and 0.096, respectively. By weighted superposition, the corresponding division map of forest fire protection and extinguishing area was made by ArcGIS. The results can provide some support for forest fire prevention and management in mountainous regions of southern China.

Key words: latitude, ontogeny, Quercus variabilis, carbon and nitrogen isotope, environmental factor