Mapping burn severity and monitoring CO content in Turkiye's 2021 Wildfires, using Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-5P satellite data on the GEE platform

This study investigated forest fires in the Mediterranean of Turkiye between July 28, 2021, and August 11, 2021. Burn severity maps were produced with the difference normalised burned ratio index (dNBR) and difference normalised difference vegetation index (dNDVI) using Sentinel-2 images on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform. The burned areas were estimated based on the determined burning severity degrees. Vegetation density losses in burned areas were analysed using the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series. At the same time, the post-fire Carbon Monoxide (CO) column number densities were determined using the Sentinel-5P satellite data. According to the burn severity maps obtained with dNBR, the sum of high and moderate severity areas constitutes 34.64%, 20.57%, 46.43%, 51.50% and 18.88% of the entire area in Manavgat, Gundogmus, Marmaris, Bodrum and Koycegiz districts, respectively. Likewise, according to the burn severity maps obtained with dNDVI, the sum of the areas of very high severity and high severity constitutes 41.17%, 30.16%, 30.50%, 42.35%, and 10.40% of the entire region, respectively. In post-fire NDVI time series analyses, sharp decreases were observed in NDVI values from 0.8 to 0.1 in all burned areas. While the Tropospheric CO column number density was 0.03 mol/m(2) in all regions burned before the fire, it was observed that this value increased to 0.14 mol/m(2) after the fire. Moreover, when the area was examined more broadly with Sentinel 5P data, it was observed that the amount of CO increased up to a maximum value of 0.333 mol/m(2). The results of this study present significant information in terms of determining the severity of forest fires in the Mediterranean region in 2021 and the determination of the CO column number density after the fire. In addition, monitoring polluting gases with RS techniques after forest fires is essential in understanding the extent of the damage they can cause to the environment.

Automated summary

This study used Sentinel-2 images and the Google Earth Engine platform to investigate forest fires in the Mediterranean region of Turkiye between July 28, 2021, and August 11, 2021. Burn severity maps were created using dNBR and dNDVI indices, and the burned areas were estimated based on the severity degrees. The study also analyzed vegetation density losses and post-fire CO column number densities. The results provide valuable information for understanding the severity of the forest fires and assessing the environmental impact.