Review of satellite based support to forest fire environmental impact assessment: the example of Arischia (Italy) forest fire

Abstract

The paper aims at presenting a review of the information which satellite images can provide to support the assessment of the environmental impact of forest fires. This will be done by considering a specific fire event occurred in Italy in 2020 (L’Aquila province) which burned about 361 ha of forest. The burned area and fire damage severity has been computed by using high and very high spatial resolution satellite images and considering the maps produced by the activation of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. The active fires have been monitored by using Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary Earth Orbit satellites. Additional information as land cover, above-ground-biomass and tree types maps, have been used to estimate burned biomass and atmosphere emissions.