According to the latest issue of an annual disaster
statistics report, floods were the deadliest type of disasters in 2019, followed by extreme... read more
Forest Fire
Definition
Wildfire, also called forest, bush or vegetation fire, can be described as any uncontrolled and non-prescribed combustion or burning of plants in a natural setting such as a forest, grassland, brush land or tundra, which consumes the natural fuels and spreads based on environmental conditions (e.g., wind, topography). Wildfire can be incited by human actions, such as land clearing, extreme drought or in rare cases by lightning (IRDR).
There are three conditions that need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. Fuel is any flammable material surrounding a fire, including trees, grasses, brush, even homes. The greater an area's fuel load, the more intense the fire. Air supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn. Heat sources help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, hot winds, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire (National Geographic).
Facts and figures
The Global Wildland Fire Network Bulletin published by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) presents the most recent data regarding consequences of wildfire: in 2017, 36 fires in protected areas were recorded in 19 countries burning more than 196000 hectares worldwide.
Wildfire plays a mixed role for ecology and economy since some ecosystems depend on natural fires to maintaining their dynamics, biodiversity and productivity. However, every year, wildfires burn millions of hectares of forest woodlands and other vegetation, causing the loss of many human and animal lives and an immense economic damage, both in terms of resources destroyed and the costs of suppression. There are also impacts on society and the environment, such as damage to human health from smoke, loss of biological diversity, release of greenhouse gases, damage to recreational values and infrastructure (FAO).
Most fires are caused by people. The list of human motivations include land clearing and other agricultural activities, maintenance of grasslands for livestock management, extraction of non-wood forest products, industrial development, resettlement, hunting, negligence and arson. Only in very remote areas of Canada and the Russian Federation lightning is a major cause of fires (FAO).
There are three basic types of wildfires:
- Crown fires burn trees up their entire length to the top. These are the most intense and dangerous wildland fires.
- Surface fires burn only surface litter and duff. These are the easiest fires to put out and cause the least damage to the forest.
- Ground fires (sometimes called underground or subsurface fires) occur in deep accumulations of humus, peat and similar dead vegetation that become dry enough to burn. These fires move very slowly, but can become difficult to fully put out, or suppress (Government of Canada).
Further information
Related content on the Knowledge Portal
Noticias
On 22 July 2020, UN-SPIDER and the Central American Coordination Centre for Natural Disaster Prevention (CEPREDENAC) joined forces to conduct a webinar on the use of novel space-based products and services to monitor forest fires that took place during the spring of 2020 in Honduras. The webinar included high ranking authorities and participants from several institutions of Honduras such as the Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente), the National Forestry Conservation Institute (ICF), the Permanent Contingencies Commission (COPECO), the National Fire Brigade and the Humanitarian Rescue Unit (UHR), alongside participants from CEPREDENAC and UN-SPIDER.
Alexander Ariza, an expert on the use of Earth observation to monitor forest fires, and currently a Visiting Scientist with UN-SPIDER, made a presentation on novel products and services developed by the... read more
The head of the UN-SPIDER Bonn office and a visiting scientist from the Universidad Católica de Manizales conducted a webinar entitled “Introduction to Satellite Products and Services for the Management of Forest Fires” on 10 June. The aim of this webinar was to facilitate the use of space-based information for disaster management and emergency... read more
At the end of April and the beginning of May 2020, Peten, the northern province or department of Guatemala, experienced severe forest fires that forced Guatemala’s National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) to request the activation of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to map the geographical extent of the fires.
To support members of Guatemala’s technical, inter-institutional, GIS and... read more
A series of wildfires have been destroying forests and agricultural land near the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Due to concerns about the spread of these fires and the potential dispersion of smoke plumes and radioactive chemicals to nearby inhabited areas, the European Union’s Emergency... read more
Evento
World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM) is a unique initiative of DMICS to bring researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world in the same platform to discuss various challenging issues of disaster risk management. The mission of WCDM is to promote interaction of science, policy and practices to enhance understanding of risks and advance actions for reducing risks and building... read more
The head of the UN-SPIDER Bonn office and a visiting scientist from the Universidad Católica de Manizales will conduct a webinar entitled “Introduction to Satellite Products and Services for the Management of Forest Fires” (in Spanish). The aim of this webinar is to facilitate the use of space-based information for disaster management and emergency... read more
EO4GEO aims to bridge the skills gap between the supply and demand of education and training in the space/geospatial sectors, fostering the uptake and integration of space/geospatial data and services in a broad range of application domains.
The event includes sessions on:
- Introduction to Copernicus and Services (with COVID-19 examples)
- The role of Earth Observation in emergency... read more
This is an online event through interactive data discovery and user practices on state-of-the-art operational datasets for detection of fire, related emissions and impacts
Here is an overview of the program:
- 11-May, 08:00 UTC (10:00 CET): AC-SAF and S5P products
- 11-May, 09:00 UTC (11:00 CET): Intro to data handling tools
- 12 May, 08:00 UTC (10:00 CET): CAMS and GFAS
- 13 May, 08:00 UTC (10:00 CET): EFFIS service
- 14 May, 08:00 UTC (10:00 CET): LAND-SAF
- 15 May, 08:00 UTC (10:00 CET): Sentinel 3 Copernicus Near Real Time (NRT) fire product
Esta capacitación avanzada cubrirá los siguientes temas 1) análisis del cambio en los bosques con datos SAR multi-temporales utilizando Google Earth Engine (GEE); 2) la clasificación de la cobertura terrestre con datos SAR y ópticos utilizando GEE; 3) el mapeo de manglares con SAR; 4) y la estimación de la altura de los bosques utilizando SAR. Cada sesión incluirá una porción teórica describiendo el uso de SAR para el mapeo de la cobertura relevante el enfoque de la sesión, seguida por una demostración de cómo acceder, descargar y analizar datos SAR para el mapeo y monitoreo del bosque. Estas demostraciones utilizan datos y software de libre acceso y de fuente abierta.
Objetivos de Aprendizaje:
- Para la conclusión de esta capacitación, los participantes podrán:
- Interpretar datos radar para el mapeo de... read more
