The new generation of remote sensing services for operational forest fire-fighting within GMES

Paper number

IAC-06-B1.4.03

Author

Mr. Fernando Valcarce, INSA, Spain

Coauthor

Dr. Jesus Gonzalo, Aeronautical School of University of León, Spain

Coauthor

Dr. Joaquín Ramirez, Spain

Coauthor

Dr. Abel Calle, Spain

Coauthor

Dr. Emilio Chuvieco, University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain

Year

2006

Abstract

PREVIEW is a European VI Framework Programme project intending to setup the next generation of services for disaster management support, within the GMES initiative.  For years, many activities around forest fires have been studied from remote sensing data in a quite intensive but uncoordinated manner. Nowadays, the improvements of new sensors, the synergy with other space technologies like positioning or communications and the coupling of emergency services to save precious time allow the development of modern services aiming to become fully operational in the mid-term horizon.

A cluster of experienced organisations within Europe is preparing the basis of this new generation of services, compiled in a single portfolio covering all scales at pan-European level, built from final user needs and taking into account all previous efforts in the area. Forest fires, Windstorms, Plain floods and Flash floods, Earthquake \& Volcanic risks, Landslides and Industrial accidents are organised into four categories: Atmospheric cluster, Geophysical cluster, Man-made cluster and General Services. All the information services are developed, tested and validated at European scale with operational users on pilot test sites distributed over 9 countries.
 
With respect to forest fires, the portfolio includes information products to be used before, during and after the crisis, built on top of rapid and customised platforms and embedded with the required information that is currently available. Fuel long-term variant parameters such as Fuel type, Load and Canopy cover with very high resolution imagery, several fire risk indexes improving the product resolution and type of input data considered. Hotspot detection maps and fireline monitoring based among others on new MSG SEVIRI sensor, fire propagation engines and tools for its operational use during the crisis phase, burned area quick assessment and damage estimation with the development of new algorithms for fire severity estimation are some of the services discussed and analysed in this paper.

Finally, the improvement of the communication networks, the coming Galileo service and definitively the possibility to have a fire-dedicated infrared payload on board GMES Sentinel satellites envisages a quantum leap in the operational use of combined space technologies for forest fire fighting and other emergencies. The new generation of services developed in PREVIEW are prepared for that, with Safety and Efficiency as design drivers.

Abstract document

IAC-06-B1.4.03.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-06-B1.4.03.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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