Building a Unified Framework for Extreme Wildfire Data in Europe

Extreme wildfires present an increasing environmental and socio-economic concern across Europe. However, the absence of comprehensive observational datasets of fire behaviour restricts the capacity to analyse, model, and manage extreme wildfire events effectively. This work aims to develop a unified and standardized dataset of extreme wildfire events in Europe based on reliable official sources, thus contributing to a consistent reference for research and management applications.

Fire event information was gathered from European fire management agencies. The data has been filtered and organized to capture the most relevant variables for extreme fire behaviour analysis, such as the temporal evolution of the burned area and the fire perimeter. Data processing and validation was performed in QGIS and outputs were exported in GeoJSON format to ensure easy integration in any geographic information system. The produced dataset allows the temporal and spatial reconstruction of fire progression. The overarching goal is to develop a comprehensive dataset of extreme wildfire events across Europe to support research and modelling efforts through shared, high-quality and standardized data resources.

Acknowledgements: This research initiative is based upon work from COST Action NERO, CA22164, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).