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Review
. 2020 Nov 11;20(22):6442.
doi: 10.3390/s20226442.

A Review on Early Forest Fire Detection Systems Using Optical Remote Sensing

Panagiotis Barmpoutis  1 , Periklis Papaioannou  1 , Kosmas Dimitropoulos  1 , Nikos Grammalidis  1
Affiliations
Review

A Review on Early Forest Fire Detection Systems Using Optical Remote Sensing

Panagiotis Barmpoutis et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

The environmental challenges the world faces nowadays have never been greater or more complex. Global areas covered by forests and urban woodlands are threatened by natural disasters that have increased dramatically during the last decades, in terms of both frequency and magnitude. Large-scale forest fires are one of the most harmful natural hazards affecting climate change and life around the world. Thus, to minimize their impacts on people and nature, the adoption of well-planned and closely coordinated effective prevention, early warning, and response approaches are necessary. This paper presents an overview of the optical remote sensing technologies used in early fire warning systems and provides an extensive survey on both flame and smoke detection algorithms employed by each technology. Three types of systems are identified, namely terrestrial, airborne, and spaceborne-based systems, while various models aiming to detect fire occurrences with high accuracy in challenging environments are studied. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of fire detection systems based on optical remote sensing are discussed aiming to contribute to future research projects for the development of early warning fire systems.

Keywords: aerial; artificial intelligence; early fire detection; multispectral imaging systems; satellite; terrestrial.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Generalized multispectral imaging systems for early fire detection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Systems discussed in this review target the detection of fire in the early stages of the fire cycle.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Radar chart showcasing the findings of this review for different early forest fire detection systems with regards to accuracy, response time, coverage area, future potential, and volume of works in the scale 0 (low) to 5 (high).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Radar chart showcasing the findings of this review for different sensor types with regards to accuracy, response time, cost, future potential, and volume of works in the scale 0 (low) to 5 (high).
Figure 5
Figure 5
The number of published articles per year related to forest fire detection. Data retrieved from Web of Science [134] for dates between 1990 to October 2020.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The number of published articles per year related to forest fire detection in the imaging research area. Data retrieved from Web of Science [134] for dates between 1990 to October 2020.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The number of published articles per year for terrestrial, aerial, and satellite-based systems. The analysis was performed for forest fire detection in the imaging research area. Data retrieved from Web of Science [134] for dates between 1990 to October 2020.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The number of times cited the published articles per year for terrestrial, aerial, and satellite-based systems. The analysis was performed for forest fire detection in the imaging research area. Data retrieved from Web of Science [134] for dates between 1990 to October 2020.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Organizations and agencies that funded most of the published articles for forest fire detection in the imaging research area. Data retrieved from Web of Science [134] for dates between 1990 to October 2020.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Authors’ affiliation by country (%) for forest fire detection in the imaging research area. Data retrieved from Web of Science [134] for dates between 1990 to October 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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