Wildfires occur naturally and can promote biological diversity and healthy ecosystems. However, for many different reasons including fire suppression, population spread, and a hotter and drier climate in parts of the world, wildfires are having devastating effects to life and property.
The effects of wildfires highlight the need to reevaluate risks and direct greater efforts toward resilience. Understanding the factors that contribute to wildfires, and their behavior once started, can be complex.
Over the years, remotely sensed data and information extracted from it have become critical to wildfire management. Remote sensing and analysis are used to predict fire risk, mitigate and prevent fires, detect fires early-on, and monitor their spread. After a wildfire, remote sensing is used to analyze their impact and guide sustainable restoration and recovery efforts.
If you are interested in how remotely sensed data and analysis can aid in all aspects of wildfire management – mitigation, prevention, managing active incidents and recovery – I recommend reading a whitepaper I recently wrote that goes through simple and innovative approaches to using remote sensing during all stages of wildfire management.