Maher Saeid Ali1*
1 Department of Ecology and Forestry, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Lattakia University, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Maher Saeid Ali, Email: maher.s.ali@tishreen.edu.sy)
Received: 21/ 5/ 2025 Accepted: 17/ 8/ 2025
Abstract
Forest fires, by their sudden and destructive nature, pose significant threats to natural ecosystems and human communities in a changing climate. In this regard, assessing and monitoring burned areas is a critical step in developing sustainable forest management measures. Since traditional forest fire monitoring is time-consuming and inaccurate, this problem must be addressed using remote sensing. This study aims to assess the dynamics of burned forest locations and the severity of fire disturbances during 2016–2020 in Tartous, using Landsat satellite image archives and spectral indices data. The study results indicate that during the period under study, approximately 3244.93 ha of forest area were burned in Tartous, including 2461.78 ha of forest cover in 2020 alone. The data were verified using modern standards to test the accuracy of the resulting maps. This study can be used to develop effective preventive measures by identifying the sites most vulnerable to forest fires.
Keywords: Forest fires, Sentinel, Tartous Governorate, NBR index, NDVI index.
Full paper in English: PDF.