Geoinformation wildfire mapping of Ukraine: analyzing FIRMS data for effective fire management

Sustainable growth in Earth remote sensing data necessitates the advancement of interpretation methods to address a wide array of economic challenges. This research paper proposes the development of a methodology to automate the assessment of fire-affected areas using GIS software such as ArcGIS and QGIS. Data on fire localization from NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 and MODIS (M6) satellites, sourced from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), as well as annual land use/land cover data from ESA WorldCover 2021, are utilized for this study. The series of maps obtained from the aggregation and generalization of fire distribution data for individual years across the administrative regions of Ukraine from 2021 to 2023 allows for the assessment of fire density, their correlation with different land cover types, and spatio-temporal changes. Graphs showing the distribution of fires based on land cover types in Ukraine for 2021–2023 have been generated. Additionally, the dynamics of fire occurrences in 2023 compared to 2022 are presented.