Fire-smart risk assessment is needed to tackle the scale of wildfire destruction, which is a growing reality across the globe. Hazardous fires are more intense and more frequent, fuelled both by climate change and by the no less significant human footprint on landscapes.

Wildfire data outlines a clear trend: we are facing increasingly devastating events that trigger disasters of previously unknown proportions. According to the European Environmental Agency 3,770 km² of land is burnt yearly on average, with 45,000 people displaced due to wildfires from 2008 to 2023, leading up to annual losses estimated at €2.5 billion in the European Union.

In the summer of 2025, Europe experienced its most extreme wildfires in the past two decades in terms of area burned. Intense fires in the Iberian Peninsula scorched 6,720 km2 of land, with 3,930 km2 in Spain alone, resulting in a tragic toll of eight fatalities.

At the other end of the globe, Chile has also seen staggering figures, leading to particularly painful disasters. In February 2024, the Valparaíso–Viña del Mar fire claimed 136 lives and destroyed nearly 7,000 homes. Similarly, this past January in Concepción–Penco, another blaze killed 21 people and levelled more than 2,000 residences.

Examining pyrogeography

Understanding the potential of these fires to devastate communities and ecosystems is vital. Consequently, recent pyrogeographical research focuses on analysing fire behaviour across diverse spatial and temporal scales. In this context, two technological approaches stand out as the most effective for evaluating fire impacts: remote sensing resources like satellite imagery, thermal sensors, and airborne platforms, which are essential for reconstructing past impacts, as well as for early detection and real-time monitoring of active........

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