New Remote Sensing Technologies in Forest Fire Analysis, Prevention and Mitigation

Dear Colleagues,

In the last years there has been intense research activity regarding the exploitation of remote sensing technologies in forest fire analysis. Forest fires have become a major concern worldwide given their impact in terms of victims, economic damage, affected ecosystems, desertification, air pollution and global warming. Climate change is affecting vegetation productivity, warm–dry cycles, or the occurrence of droughts, resulting in the higher vulnerability of regions to severe events. The seasonality, size and intensity of wildfires are also being altered. The risk of devastating megafires, like those that recently occurred in the Mediterranean area or on the American west coast, is increasing evidently. This scenario urges scientists and researchers to explore solutions that allow us to better understand the deep mechanisms of such complex events as forest fires, and gain a coherent science-based understanding to assess prevention and management strategies so that the occurrence of such disasters in the future can be prevented or mitigated.

Wildfire prevention, mitigation measures and the recovery of burned areas require accurate knowledge of several factors like land cover, forest fuels, population settlement pattern distribution, infrastructure networks, topographic conditions, and severity maps, among others. This knowledge is essential to support effective landscape management measures. Satellite, aerial and terrestrial technologies have been revealed to be suitable to effectively collect data on a large scale. However, the available technologies for land mapping have evolved significantly in the last years. Medium and high spatial resolution satellites with an acceptable spectral resolution, mobile systems providing extremely detailed information, autonomous systems or UAV-based solutions are some examples.

This Special Issue aims at studies covering new remote sensing technologies, data collections and processing methodologies that can be successfully applied in wildfire analysis, mitigation and prevention. We welcome submissions that cover, but are not limited to:

• The mapping of the wildland–urban interface at different scales.
• Data mining for the analysis of the factors influencing ecosystems in their vulnerability to forest fires.
• Remote sensing techniques in the evaluation of the impact of climate change in forest fires.
• The Copernicus Earth Observation Program in forest fire severity evaluation, land monitoring and recovery after forest fire occurrence.

Dr. Julia Armesto
Dr. Juan Juan Picos
Dr. Andreas Nüchter
Guest Editors

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