Analysis of the Hatay Forest Fire Using Remote Sensing Techniques

Uzaktan Algılama Teknikleriyle Hatay Orman Yangının Analiz Edilmesi

Abstract

In recent years, the frequency and severity of forest fires have increased significantly due to factors such as climate change, land use changes, and anthropogenic activities. Forest fires pose a critical threat to the climate and environment, causing ecosystem losses, carbon emissions, and biodiversity degradation. Determining the extent and severity of damage following forest fires provides advantages in making decisions about restoring affected areas. These dynamic processes, which affect large areas, are difficult to manage quickly, reliably, and economically using traditional methods. Therefore, remote sensing techniques have been frequently used in recent years to monitor forest fires and reveal their effects. Remote sensing is effectively used in three different stages: before, during, and after the fire. It has the capacity to produce fast and reliable data, particularly in pre- and post-fire analyses using multispectral imagery. In this study, areas destroyed by fire in the Işıklı and Kale regions of the Arsuz district of Hatay in May 2018 were analyzed using remote sensing techniques. The Sentinel satellite, which produces data before and after the fire, was utilized in this study, which has adequate spectral and temporal resolution. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Normalized Difference Burn Ratio (dNBR) techniques were used to reveal the severity and extent of fire in the study area.