Publications

Vilar, Lara; Camia, Andrea; San-Miguel-Ayanz, Jesus (2015). A comparison of remote sensing products and forest fire statistics for improving fire information in Mediterranean Europe. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING, 48, 345-364.

Abstract
The impact of forest fires in Europe is assessed in the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) from two independent information sources: field data collected at national level and remote sensing. This study analyzes the agreement between both data sources for all fires between 2000 and 2009 in five European Mediterranean countries. Remote sensing products allow the enrichment of the field data reported by countries as they provide detailed spatial positioning and temporal information of the fires. Also the relationship between the number of active fires detected from remote sensing (MODIS hotspots) and burnt area mapped in EFFIS was analyzed by means of linear and quantile regressions. For fires larger than 500ha our results show a general agreement of 56% (similar to 70% in Spain and Greece, similar to 60% in France, similar to 55% in Italy and similar to 45% in Portugal). The estimation of burnt area from MODIS hotspots had a 68% fit.

DOI:
10.5721/EuJRS20154820

ISSN:
2279-7254