Use of Remote Sensing in Developing a Forest Fire Occurrence Management System

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In Canada, forest fire is a critical disturbance. In the last 25 years, there have been on average 8300 fires annually. Each year on average 2.3 million hectares of forest have been burned. Though fire brings some advantages in enriching soil nutrients, killing insects and diseases, regenerating forests; however, it causes a significant amount of detrimental impacts. Those include: (i) economic loss due to burning of the trees and properties nearby the fire locations; (ii) increasing the carbon dioxide loading in the atmosphere; (iii) health hazard through air quality deterioration; and (iv) possible loss of human life in fighting large fires, among others. Also, every year on average Canada has spent CAD $500 million to $1 billion in fighting fires during the last decade. Thus, development of an efficient forest fire occurrence management system is crucial to develop sustainable fire management strategies in order to offset the adverse impacts. In this context, the intent is to use remote sensing data (in the form of digital imagery) acquired by the satellite platforms capable of gathering information over a large geographic area periodically.