Use of satellite images for forest fires in area determination and monitoring

In Mediterranean climate regions, forest fires are quite common in summer months due to increases in air temperature. Reforestation of fire areas are a constitutional obligation in Turkey. Identification as well as the follow-up rehabilitation efforts can be carried out by remote sensing techniques in economic and practical ways. In the present study, the images from LANDSAT and ASTER satellites were used in the determination of areal extentions and levels of damages due to recent forest fires in October 2008 in Canakkale Province of Turkey. Our findings are compared with the official forest fire records by Canakkale Forest Administration Office. Potential use of satellite images and related image processing and GIS techniques in the past and present forest fire identification and rehabilitation efforts are discussed and their possible use in the application of recent forest law amendments (known as 2B) are evaluated.

I INTRODUCTION

In the world, about 5 billion hectares of forests are damaged due to forest fires, every year. In the Mediterranean countries (i.e., Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal), about 500.000 hectares of forest area were harmed by fires in a year. In Turkey, such burnt areas are more than 20.000 hectares per year on the average. In every forest fire, excess carbondioxide production and oxygen - consumption, extinction of flora and fauna and important human life loses are encountered [2]. Since 1937, there have been 68214 registered forest fires up to now (about 1000 per year) and a total 1,5 million hectares of forest areas were damaged by these fires, In Turkey [1].