Fire Danger Mapping (FDM) tutorial

Spanish version here

Use case

The three services that constitute the Use Case 6 (Wildfires: mapping events, danger and recovery) can be triggered over a region of interest in the LAC and by defining a date from which the wildfire monitoring shall start.

In this tutorial we take as example the case study of the large wildfire event that took place in central Chile in February 2023 (see article from the NASA Earth Observatory) and pre-executed the Fire Danger Mapping (FDM) service to simulate a near-real-time monitoring. This tutorial aims to indicate a potential usage of the FDM service.

Getting familiar with the UI

Once inside the Wildfire Results Explorer of the CopernicusLAC Platform the user gets access to an essential and intuitive Graphic User Interface with a global map centered over the LAC region and with panels located on the right and on the left.

The left panel provides a Date Selector and a Layer List to be activated and shown on the map. Below is also available a Location Search widget that can be used to find a location of interest. On the right is located the Basemap and navigation panel where the user can change the base layer, switch between 3D and 2D views of the map, and find the Navigation control buttons.

Basemap Control Panel and Navigation Buttons

To navigate into the Wildfire Results Explorer the user can employ the Map Navigation buttons available in the Navigation Panel which is located in the upper right corner of the map. Alternatively, the user can also pan, zoom-in/out, rotate and tilt the 3D view also by using classical left click and mousewheel.

The 3D view is enabled by default in the Wildfire Results Explorer. To change to a plane view of the map click on the dedicated button located in the Basemap control panel.

Try to switch among the 3D and 2D view of the map. The below image shows an example of the 2D view of the map.

The user can also change the default basemap by selecting another one from the list available in the Basemap Control Panel. Get back to the 3D view of the map and switch the default baselayer, the ESRI World Map baselayer, with another one such as the Light one. The map will appear as in the below image.

Layers

In the Wildfire Results Explorer layers are grouped into: Layers, Additional Layers and EO data. The Fire Danger Map product can be seen on the map by activating the dedicated layer under the Layer list.

The Fire Danger layer shows a daily hazard assessment highlighting areas at risk of fire.

In addition to that the user can also visualize true/false color composites or single band visual products, derived from multispectral or thermal calibrated EO data from the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 missions, by activating one of the layers under the EO data group.

Find here a description of all other layers available in the Wildfire Results Explorer user interface.

Interact with layers

To show or hide a layer in the map you can click on the circular button located next to the layer title on the left.

The user can interact with the layers by using the Layer buttons: Info about the layer, Pan/Zoom, Set opacity, and Item list.

Concerning the layer order visualization, the last activated layer will be the top layer in the visualization of multiple layers in the map.

In the Wildfire Results Explorer it is possible to visualize the Fire Danger map derived from the FDM service. The map will automatically show all the items included in the layer for the current date. Once the layer is activated the platform shows the FDM legend in the bottom right corner of the map.

To get more information about the items contained into a layer see:

• the Item list panel,

• the Item details panel,

• and the Clicked items dialog.

Temporal search

The Wildfire Results Explorer shows in the map EO data products as layers for a selected date. To select the date you shall employ the Date selector available in the Layers panel on the top left corner of the interface. After a selection the platform automatically does for each layer a search of items that are made available under that date.

Let's use the Date selector to change the current date with another one in the past such as the 31 January 2023 (few days before the large Chile 2023 wildfire). You can either use the buttons available on the left of the selected date or by clicking on the calendar icon. After the change of the date the interface will show the following result.

Spatial search

To quickly zoom to the area of interest near Los Ángeles in Chile you can employ the Search Location widget located in the bottom left corner of the map.

After clicking on Los Ángeles, Biobio, Chile from the list of results from the search, the map will be automatically centered over the bounding box of the searched location, as shown in the below image.

Find and visualize EO products

Let’s keep inspecting the Fire Danger layer showing daily fire danger maps over this area of Chile. To do this, first of all zoom out to a wider area to better understand the hazard assessment highlighting areas at risk of fire also in the surrounding areas of Los Àngeles.

Then select another date: the 1 February 2023 using the single right arrow > next to the calendar button.

To better interpret the classes of this fire danger full resolution visual product, you can check the legend appearing in the bottom right corner of the map. Areas in orange indicates High fire danger meaning an increased likelihood of fire ignition and spread.

From the Select date functionality of the Date selector, change again the date to the 3 February 2023. Areas in red indicates Very High fire danger meaning that fires can start and spread rapidly.

To visually compare the Fire Danger layer with another underlying baselayer (e.g. the ESRI World Map) you can set the Opacity as 50% using the dedicated layer button.

Download the EO products

To access the Item list panel and find all the items available for the Fire Danger layer click on the Item List from the available layer buttons.

To download the FDM single band asset, click on one of the items in the list and then from the Item details panel click on the available hyperlink under the section Downloads of the metadata.

Back to Wildfire services