Multi source fire monitoring and managem 2022 : Special Issie Multi Source and Multi-System Fire Monitoring Relying on EO Data in Mediterranean Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

Fire is the most important natural threat to forested and wooded regions of the Mediterranean basin. In the last few years, severe fire events hit countries in Southern Europe, for example, in 2017 when large fires in Portugal and Greece caused economic and environmental damage, including loss of lives, infrastructures, and ecosystem services.

Climate change, one of the major drivers of warmer and drier conditions in Southern Europe, combined with other environmental and socioeconomic factors could affect fire regimes by exacerbating fire occurrence and severity (longer fire seasons, more frequent fire events); extreme fire seasons are likely to be more and more common in southern Europe. Observed and predicted trends of future climate scenarios depict an increased risk of large fires hence major efforts should be focused on new strategies for reducing their impacts.

This Special Issue will collect contributions for a better understanding of fire dynamics, fire regimes, and fire impacts in Mediterranean Ecosystems. Focus is placed on applications of Earth Observation data and systems for the production of geospatial thematic products for all phases of fire monitoring and management: 1) Pre-fire: fuel type and conditions, wildfire risk assessment, and vulnerability; 2) Fire impact assessment: fire severity, fire and burned area monitoring and mapping; 3) Post-fire: regeneration, restoration, and regrowth. Manuscripts presenting the use of EO-based geo-products in multi-source operative systems and workflows are welcome to highlight the added value of remote sensing for fire management and monitoring in Mediterranean ecosystems. Manuscripts addressing the exploitation of new data from nanosatellite constellations and fusion of operational SAR and optical data (e.g., Copernicus Sentinel missions) will also be considered of great interest for the Special Issue. Fire product validation, as well as and the assessment and the evaluation of EO product timeliness, reliability, spatial, and temporal suitability, and accuracy are all topics that are relevant for the Special Issue.

Dr. Daniela Stroppiana
Dr. Mirco Boschetti
Guest Editors