Spatio-temporal analysis of carbon storage in urban areas after wildfires: the case of Marmaris fire

Abstract

Cities and urban areas are the primary source of CO2 worldwide by using around 70% of global energy and emitting more than 71% of CO2. Urban vegetation, referring to all trees and shrubs, are important components of urban environments. They provide many ecosystem services to human beings both directly and indirectly. Especially, they play a key role in reducing carbon emissions in urban areas by storing and capturing the carbon. However, recently, an increase in the number and intensity of wildfires that occur within urban areas has been observed. It resulted in losing stored carbon, releasing GHG to the atmosphere. Hence, quantifying above-ground carbon stored by urban trees and its distribution is essential to better understanding urban vegetation's role in urban environments and to better urban vegetation management. This study aimed to examine how forest fire affects the amount and distribution of stored carbon in the urban environment for the case of the Marmaris fire in the Summer of 2021 in Türkiye. For the study, urban forest carbon storage maps were generated before and after the Marmaris forest fire using remote sensing-based methodology with freely available remote sensing (RS) data. The results indicated that using the existing methodology could be rapid and cost-effective in monitoring the carbon storage change after an anthropogenic and natural disaster. However, for precise and reliable estimation of total carbon storage and the change in total urban carbon storage, the methodology needs to be developed at a local scale using field sampling along with RS data.