Remote Sensing and Unmanned Aerial System Technology for Monitoring and Quantifying Forest Fire Impacts

Fire is a regular occurrence throughout the world’s forested landscapes and affects millions of hectares annually. A variety of remote sensing applications have been developed to quantify wildfire impacts in forests with varying success. Remote sensing technology applications for wildfires have typically involved quantifying burn severity, fuel levels, and forest resource recovery following burn. Wildfire remote sensing applications have recently included active or realtime technology applications for mapping burn impacts and wildfire detection and monitoring. A review of traditional remote sensing applications are presented in this paper to quantify fire impacts, tracking vegetation recovery, establishing fuel conditions, and fire detection and monitoring in forested landscapes; then recent examples of active and real-time remote sensing techniques were examined to monitor fire ignition and behavior, followed by an assessment of potential future applications. The application of unmanned aerial systems (UAS’s) with both spectral and thermal sensors may hold great promise for future remote sensing applications related to forest fires.