Modelling of Wildfire Susceptibility in Different Climate Zones in Montenegro Using GIS-MCDA

Montenegro has different influences on the weather and climate ; in general, accordingto Köppen’s classification, there are two climate zones: warm temperate (C) and cold temperate(D). The aim of this study is to determine the susceptibility to wildfires in the Montenegrin coastalmunicipality of Budva and the northern municipality of Rožaje, which are located in different climaticconditions, using multicriteria GIS decision analysis (GIS-MCDA). Nine natural and anthropogeniccriteria were used for the analysis. Open geospatial data were used as input data for all criteria. Theassignment of weighting coefficients for the criteria in relation to wildfire susceptibility importancewas based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP)procedures. The results for the AHP and F-AHP models were obtained using the Weighted LinearCombination (WLC) method. According to the AHP model, the very high and high category covers80.93% of the total area in Budva and 80.65% in Rožaje. According to the F-AHP model, the very highand high category occupies 80.71% of the total area in Budva and 82.30% in Rožaje. The validationshows that the models of GIS-MCDA perform fair in both climatic zones. The proposed models, especially in the absence of geospatial data, can be a strategic and operational advantage in thedevelopment of plans and strategies for protection against wildfires.