In the framework of SERV_FORFIRE project, the use of satellite data has been adopted as operational tool. An example of best practice is provided by the Basilicata pilot area, where CNR-IMAA has further improved the operational tools already devised for the various phases of the fire management with specific attention to the estimation of: (i) fire danger and (ii) post fire monitoring, in terms of burnt areas and burn severity mapping using satellite sentinel 1 and 2 data.
All the sentinel platforms provide satellite big data which require expensive hardware infrastructures and pose challenges linked with the processing, interpretation and validation issues, for transforming data into useful information. To face the need of suitable infrastructure today there are several cloud facilities as Google Earth Engine (GEE), available as open and free tools for research purposes or at low cost for other applications. Within SERV_FORFIRE, with the joint efforts of all the partners and several end –users, several tools have been developed which have been firstly adopted and tested in the pilot areas and later also applied and validated in other EU e non EU countries as shown from the figures.
In particular, Figure 1 and Figure 2 show the small fire detected in Basilicata, along with the bigger events detected in France through the use of USGS (United States Geological Survey) thresholds for the characterization of Fire Severity as it can be seen in Figure 3. While, Sentinel-5 (S5) were used for the analysis of pollutants emissions due to the combustion of fires occurred in August 2019 in the south of Brazil, in the area of Mato Grosso do Sul (fig. 4).
As in example, the methodologies developed and applied in Basilicata have been continuously improved and joint tested by the Argon laboratory research team of the CNR-IMAA and the decision-makers of the Civil Protection Office of Basilicata Region.