Remote sensing and GIS-based inventory and analysis of the unprecedented 2021 forest fires in Türkiye’s history
This study aimed to document and analyze the 30 large fires (affecting over 100 hectares) of 2021 using remote sensing and GIS techniques. In the summer of 2021, Türkiye experienced unprecedented forest fire events. Throughout that fire season, a total of 291 fire incidents, covering an area of 202,361 hectares, dominated the public agenda. A comprehensive fire database was established, encompassing information on burned areas, fire severity, and fuel types, determined from forest-stand types and topographical properties including slope, elevation, and aspect (in eight directions).
It can be concluded that having a comprehensive database is very crucial. These discussions covered different aspects of the issue, with some expressing environmental anxieties from the clearly felt effects of climate change in recent years, and others reflecting differences in political views and the perceived organizational deficiencies in fire suppression. In future, this study will allow us to create a WebGIS-based platform having a database that will include all forest fires, from the recent past to the present, that will be updated each year, and that will be accessible to researchers. In this respect, the study provided a database that includes information on the total extent of the burned area, the amount of residential and agricultural areas affected, and most importantly, considering the severities of the fires, the extent of the forested areas affected with regard to fuel types and topographic properties.