Wildfires have a significant impact on communities, wildlife ecosystems, air quality, the environment, the economy, and human health. Managing wildfires is essential in Ethiopia's national parks. Understanding the factors contributing to wildfires enables preventive action, especially in ecologically sensitive areas such as the Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP). This study primarily focused on predicting wildfire hotspots and analyzing the influencing factors using geospatial data aided by the gray relational analysis (GRA) technique. Seven parameters were identified: elevation, slope, land surface temperature (LST), vegetation type, natural difference vegetation index (NDVI), distance to roads, and settlement. The study indicated that the main driver of wildfires is land cover, with shrubland and grassland being particularly vulnerable vegetation types. The most important factors affecting this were identified as vegetation type, elevation, and NDVI, accounting for 20. 8%, 18. 2%, and 16.1%, respectively. Most wildfire hotspots were distributed in areas with higher elevations and steep slopes. In BMNP, the vulnerability to wildfire was low in 936.61 km2 (39.77%), moderate in 1411.37 km2 (59.93%), and high in 7.02 km2 (0.3%) of the park. Fire intensity decreased as it moved farther away from highways and human settlements, and its concentration decreased as it moved farther away from the hubs of human activity. An integrated strategic plan to control forest fires, which appears to be lacking nationwide, is urgently needed, as uncontrolled forest fires could destroy the region's ecology.
Bekalo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.