High-value datasets – forest fires in the EU
Publication Date/Time
2023-01-10T14:09:04+00:00
Monitoring forest fires in Europe through high-value datasets
This data story on forest fires opens a series of articles showcasing
examples of high-value datasets from their different thematic
categories. High-value datasets are defined by EU law based on their
potential to provide essential benefits to society, the environment
and the economy. This series aims to help readers find reliable and
accurate information from official sources related to the availability
of various high-value datasets and present this information through
data visualisation. You can check out the article providing an
overview of high-value datasets here
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/high-value-datasets-overview-through-visualisation].

Only datasets specifically defined by law can be considered high-value
datasets, and as such the data presented in the articles does not
necessarily falls under that definition. Instead, the data has been
chosen to be thematically adjacent to high-value datasets, and to
showcase what can be done with information made available by official
EU bodies and its Member States. The official list of high-value
datasets can be found in the legal documents
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/1024/oj] that define them and
their characteristics.

FOREST FIRES AND HIGH-VALUE DATASETS

Data about forest fires come from multiple sources and fall under
several high-value datasets’ thematic categories. Data on forest
fires provided by the satellites of the Copernicus programme are part
of the orthoimagery theme
[https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/Themes/124/2892] of the INSPIRE
directive [https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/inspire-directive/2], which
covers georeferenced image data of the Earth’s surface from either
satellite or airborne sensors. Orthoimagery is included in the
‘Earth observation and environment’ high-value datasets thematic
category, which consists of environmental information about air,
climate and emissions, such as observation data by weather stations
and climate data. Moreover, parts of the data fall under the
‘Geospatial’ category, which comprises administrative units,
buildings and geographical names. Lastly, other datasets fall under
the ‘Meteorological’ thematic category, which contains information
such as climate data, weather alerts and weather station observation
data. The high value of these datasets was assessed
[https://www.access-info.org/wp-content/uploads/Deloitte-Study-2020.pdf]
as per their impact on addressing pressing environmental or economic
questions. For example, the damage assessment information provided by
the Copernicus programme can quickly help establish the extent of the
damage caused by fires.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.fires-final-01.png]
FOREST FIRES IN THE EU

When it comes to forest fires, the 2022 summer was the worst year on
record in the EU since 2006, as shown by the data
[https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/effis.statistics/seasonaltrend]
from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). The
cumulative burned area was almost three times more than the
2006–2021 average, with roughly 7 500 square kilometres burned –
a little more than a third of the total surface area of Wales –
compared to an average of 2 600 square kilometres in past summers.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.fires-final-02.png]
FOREST FIRES THROUGH EFFIS AND COPERNICUS DATA

For a bird’s eye view of forest fires, EFFIS is a particularly
valuable data source. Supported since 1998 by an international group
of experts, EFFIS became one of the components of the emergency
management services in the EU Copernicus programme in 2015. EFFIS
offers several services, which, among other things, allow users to
view the current situation
[https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/effis_current_situation/] in a
map, read [https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/firenews.viewer/] a
curated list of news stories about fires, view long-term fire weather
forecasts
[https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/effis.longterm.forecasts] and
access a detailed statistics portal
[https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/effis.statistics/]. The portal
offers estimates about burned areas and the number of fires, and
seasonal trends that allow the reader to compare different time
periods. Information is shown via charts and tables and can be
directly downloaded in CSV and JSON formats.

EFFIS is one of the components of the Copernicus programme, a project
implemented by the European Commission with support from the European
Space Agency and the European Environment Agency. Copernicus operates
through a set of dedicated satellites
[https://www.copernicus.eu/en/about-copernicus/infrastructure-overview/discover-our-satellites]
and their data are complemented and validated with on-the-ground
information.

One of its services is called the Copernicus emergency management
service (EMS)
[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-activations-rapid],
which uses satellite imagery and other geospatial data to provide
mapping in the event of natural disasters, humanitarian crises or
other emergencies. EMS is a service of specific interest for forest
fires, as it can be triggered by authorised subjects (such as EU
Member States, the Commission and others) and produces information in
days or even within hours.

EMS is also used to provide estimates on the severity of damages
caused by an event with a granularity up to singular infrastructure
and building. The capabilities of the project are shown in the
following visualisations. The following maps the areas where the EMS
service was activated because of a wildfire or forest fire during the
2022 summer.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.fires-final-03.png]
The EMS service also allows the affected areas to be observed in great
detail and provides a series of maps that include estimates of the
damage endured. The following visualisation shows three of the largest
forest fires monitored by the EMS service that occurred in the EU
during the summer of 2022, along with the damages dealt to nature and
properties surrounding the events.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.fires-final-04.png]
 

FOREST FIRES DATA ON DATA.EUROPA.EU

Another significant data source is data.europa.eu
[https://data.europa.eu/en], the official portal for European data. A
search performed in November 2022 showed over 3 000 results
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets?query=%22forest%20fires%22&locale=en]
for the keyword ‘forest fires’, with datasets about a wide range
of topics: penalties for forest fires in Italy
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/p_tn-507a6592-918d-4299-8ee9-ca2c521bc6ec],
forest fires hazards in parts of Germany
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/a7df2bc2-28fd-43de-89a2-987d0ba634d6?locale=en],
along with a list of fires in Latvia
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/-c0fbde32-5287-4c78-b8ae-70a0a2772b74-?locale=en]
or in the Navarra region
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/https-datosabiertos-navarra-es-dataset-spasitnaforest_pol_hcoincendio-xml?locale=es]
(Spain) since 1985.

The following visualisation shows where and when forest fires occurred
in the Spanish region from 1985 to 2019, along with some of their
characteristics. The Department of Rural Development and Environment
of Navarra is responsible for the collection of these data.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.fires-final-05.png]
 

OTHER DATA SOURCES ON FOREST FIRES

More comprehensive information about forest fires can be found in
reports that analyse this issue from different vantage points. EFFIS
has a specific section
[https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports-and-publications] on its
website in which readers can find annual reports, forest fires studies
done under the forest focus regulation (Regulation (EC) No 2152/2003)
and country and regional maps.

Other reports [https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news_en]
are produced by the Joint Research Centre, the Commission’s science
and knowledge service. One of those is an annual overview
[https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC130846] of
the evolution and impact of wildfires in Europe, the Middle East and
North Africa. The Joint Research Centre also hosts the global wildfire
information system service
[https://gwis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/gwis_current_situation/index.html],
a real-time map based on NASA and Copernicus data.

The European Environmental Agency website has a section
[https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims/forest-fires-in-europe] about forest
fires. Based in part on EFFIS data, it also offers an analysis of the
future forest fires danger under different climate change scenarios.

Copernicus also offers information about this topic. Its European
State of the Climate [https://climate.copernicus.eu/ESOTC] report is a
yearly analysis of climate conditions and events, from temperatures to
precipitations, river discharges and, of course, wildfires.

CONCLUSION

According to a report
[https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2019/11/SRCCL-Full-Report-Compiled-191128.pdf]
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of the
United Nations, ‘climate change is playing an increasing role in
determining wildfire regimes alongside human activity, with future
climate variability expected to enhance the risk and severity of
wildfires in many biomes such as tropical rainforests’. This makes
it of the utmost importance to monitor and assess the situation using
all useful sources.

In this context, there is a clear need for free of charge, publicly
available and reusable information. The identification of ‘Earth
observation and environment’ as a key category of interest for
high-value datasets is in line with this urgency. Since data need to
comply with specific technical characteristics, EFFIS is an important
case study as it favours data reuse through directly downloadable
content and machine-readable formats. Moreover, the variety of
datasets presented from the Copernicus programmes and data.europa.eu
highlight the variety of data formats and sources available to users,
enabling singular events and historical records to be analysed in
great detail.

 

METHODOLOGICAL NOTES

The second visualisation lists cities that had a recorded activation
of the Copernicus EMS system during the 2022 summer. Not all wildfires
lead to an activation of the service, so this is a subset of the total
number of events.

The data used in the third visualisation are about the three largest
forest fires, by burned area, as recorded by Copernicus activation
during the summer of 2022. Detailed information about those events is
available on their activation page on the Copernicus website here
[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-components/EMSR580],
here
[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-components/EMSR589]
and here
[https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-components/EMSR618].

 

To download the visualisations, click on the following: HVD overview
[https://gitlab.com/Giuseppeascone/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/2.0_HVD_overview.png],
seasonal trends
[https://gitlab.com/Giuseppeascone/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/2.1_seasonal_trends.png],
wildfires summer 2022
[https://gitlab.com/Giuseppeascone/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/2.2_wildfires_summer_2022.png],
wildfires impact
[https://gitlab.com/Giuseppeascone/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/2.3_wildfires_impact.png],
forest fires history
[https://gitlab.com/Giuseppeascone/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/2.4_forest_fires_history.png].

To download the data behind the visualisations, click on the
following: forest fires data
[https://gitlab.com/Giuseppeascone/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/forest_fires_data_to_share.xlsx]

 

_Article by Davide Mancino_

_Data visualisations by Federica Fragapane_
