Current Trends in Wildfire Detection, Monitoring and Surveillance

Wildfires pose severe threats to ecosystems and human settlements, making early detection and rapid response critical for minimizing damage. The adage—“You fight fire in the first second with a spoon of water, in the first minute with a bucket, and in the first hour with a truckload”—illustrates the importance of early intervention. Over recent decades, significant research efforts have been directed toward developing efficient systems capable of identifying wildfires in their initial stages, especially in remote forests and wildland–urban interfaces (WUIs). This review paper introduces the Special Issue of Fire and is dedicated to advanced approaches to wildfire detection, monitoring, and surveillance. It summarizes state-of-the-art technologies for smoke and flame detection, with a particular focus on their integration into broader wildfire management systems. Emphasis is placed on distinguishing wildfire monitoring (the passive collection of data using various sensors) from surveillance (active data analysis and action based on visual information). The paper is structured as follows: a historical and theoretical overview; a discussion of detection validation and available datasets; a review of current detection methods; integration with ICT tools and GIS systems; the identification of system gaps; and future directions and emerging technologies.