GEOB 270 Final Project

GEOB 270 Final Project

British Columbia has experienced a multitude of wildfires throughout history, with 2017 reaching a record burning of 894, 491 hectares of land. In order to understand the factors that contribute to the causes and growth of wildfires in the province, we researched environmental factors as well as natural factors compared to anthropogenic causes of wildfires in BC. The following report outlines the process of researching, extracting, and manipulating the displayed data to evaluate potential features of the province that facilitate the spread of wildfires and track them back to their root causes. Through Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis, we found that the Boreal Ecodivision has the highest rate of historical wildfires in its area at 27%, compared to the five other BC ecodivisions, with Semi-Arid Steppe Highlands following in second with 19% of historical wildfires covering its region. Our findings also revealed that anthropogenic causes were greater than lightning causes of wildfires in BC, meaning that humans have had a large impact on causing wildfire disasters. In combination with human and environmental factors, BC’s wildfires hold great concern of destruction of land and homes, especially in dry and hot summer months. The results of this analysis will articulate the specific causes of vulnerability in certain regions of British Columbia.