Abstract
In this study, we analysed fire occurrences in
Southern Africa using point pattern analysis methods. The
intensity of events varied vary across the region, events
interacted across the region. The intensity plot showed that
events are more concentrated at latitude -12.00 and longitude
35.00. Ripley’s k-function revealed that events are clustered up
to a distance of 14 km. We tested hypothesis that Higher
amounts of dry mass productivity (DMP) and the normalised
difference vegetation index (NDVI) result in more fire
occurrences and more biomass burning, we also hypothesised
that dry woodlands in savannah ecosystems result in more fire
occurrences as compared to other land cover types in MaxEnt.
Results showed DMP, NDVI and land cover types can be used
to model fire occurrences with an ACU of 0,760.It also showed
that as DMP and NDVI increased fire occurrence probability
also increased. More fires are concentrated (0.79) in crop land
with woody vegetation and closed grass land cover types. All
the countries in Southern Africa have a high fire risky.