Forest fires represent one of the hazards in the Czech Republic that is being paid increasing attention. Even though the areas affected by forest fires are not as large as in Mediterranean Europe, the economic and environmental impact and natural loss is high. The phenomenon occurs constantly every year with fluctuating but increasing intensity.
Czech Ministry of Agriculture is the responsible body mandated to define measures for forest fire threat monitoring for forest owners. The Ministry ensures the operation of national aviation fire service and coordinates the activities with all relevant stakeholders. Airborne patrol is the main tool to monitor forests in case of fires threats as part of pre-event emergency activity. So far the forest fire risk assessment and airborne patrol planning are mostly based on local knowledge and meteorological data.
The aim of the SAFETREE (Satellite Support to Forest Fires Airborne Patrol) project is to design, develop and verify a concept of the operational forest monitoring service dedicated to support forest fire risk assessment in the Czech Republic. Time series of satellite imagery allow monitoring of various aspects of forest vegetation with high spatial and temporal resolution. Integration of selected indicators into forest fire risk assessment will improve the planning and increase the efficiency of the airborne patrol. Proposed prototype of the monitoring system will allow identification of hot-spots with highest forest fire threat and will deliver flight navigation data that shall be directly integrated into the flight plans of the airborne patrol operators.
SAFETREE project is supported by the ESA ARTES Integrated Applications Programme (IAP – ARTES element 20). The project team is coordinated by Gisat and includes one additional partner – Sprinx Systems.
Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936