Wildfires and remote sensing: An overview

Abstract

Remote-sensing capabilities for the detection, forecasting, monitoring, and assessment of wildland fires are overviewed. A description of the different types of wildfires is presented, along with meteorological and environmental parameters related to causes and factors of wildfires, including fire mechanisms and protection. Remote-sensing concepts as well as potentials and capabilities of wildfires are presented. It is realized that there is a significant and steadily increasing reliability of remote-sensing data and methods in all aspects of wildfire analysis. The chapter describes remotely sensed data and methods for wildland fuel modeling, fire early warning systems, fuel moisture content, wildfire detection and monitoring, and post-fire assessment, including burned area delineation and regrowth. Remote-sensing examples and case studies are presented on the above topics. It is assessed that remotely sensed pre-fire detection is considered operational. Satellite remote sensing assists in fuel type mapping. Furthermore, remote sensing has an advantage on fuel moisture, since vegetation can be directly estimated. Indeed, the current trend is the development of automatically supported methods to process satellite data without human intervention. Moreover, new types of remote-sensing systems offer online open information for web platforms. © 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.