Information extraction for forest fires management

Abstract

Forest fires are a recurrent environmental and economic emergency worldwide. In Southern Europe the year 2003 is considered one of the worst ever with a total burnt area of 740,000 hectares [22]. Even if in some countries according to the national burnt area statistics the problem seems to be under control and of steady or decreasing magnitude, in regions like the western Iberian Peninsula or large parts of North America the trend is worryingly opposite [23, 29]. The causes of such catastrophic events depend on a number of factors, ranging from meteorology to societal changes to vegetation type and emergency response readiness and efficiency. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.