7th International Symposium on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Edited by M. Caetano and M. Painho. 624 A performance index developed by data envelopment analysis (DEA) to compare the efficiency of fire risk monitoring actions in municipalities of Brazilian Amazon region José Alberto Quintanilha and Linda Lee Ho Escola Politécnica – USP – Brazil jaquinta@usp.br; lindalee@usp.br Abstract PROARCO (Programa de Prevenção, Controle e Combate a incêndios florestais na Amazônia), a program for the prevention and control of burning and forest fires in the Arc of Deforestation, began in the spring of 1998. The program is jointly administered by the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA, the Brazilian government’s official environmental agency), and the Ministry for the Environment, Water Resources, and the Amazon region. The program was designed to monitor agricultural burning and forest fires including monitoring fire risk, to enforce regulations regarding the use of fire in land management, prevent and combat forest fires, and to establish a strategic task force. The fire monitoring program managed by IBAMA collected fire pixels counts from 1998 to 2002 and used them as a measure of wildfire threats for the Amazon region. The objective of the study is to develop a performance index based on the frequency of fire pixel counts and explanatory variables related to land management, census and agricultural data to compare the efficiency of fire risk monitoring actions in municipalities of Brazilian Amazon region. The index was developed using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, fire hot pixels, efficiency, Amazon Region, fire monitoring 1 Introduction In 1998, a program for the prevention and control of burning and forest fires in the Arc of Deforestation named PROARCO (Programa de Prevenção, Controle e Combate a incêndios florestais na Amazônia) was created. Among other activities, its mission was designed to monitor agricultural burning and forest fires including monitoring fire risk, to enforce regulations regarding the use of fire in land management, prevent and combat forest fires, and to establish a strategic task force. It is jointly administered by the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA, the Brazilian government’s official environmental agency) and the Ministry for the Environment, Water Resources and Amazon region. The fire monitoring program managed by IBAMA collected fire pixels counts from 1998 to 2002 and they are used as a measure of wildfire threats for the Amazon region. Fire pixels are defined as 4-channel AVHRR image pixels with values in thermal channel 3 (3.9µm) above a prescribed threshold (Setzer, 1993). The objective of this study is to develop a performance index based on the fire pixel counts and explanatory variables related to land management, census and agricultural data to compare the efficiency of fire monitoring risk actions in municipalities of Amazon region. To develop such index, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used.