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A Global Burning Issue

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About the map

Wildfires have been an all too frequent topic of news in recent years. Sadly, they are only likely to increase in both frequency and severity, as the effects of climate change continue to escalate.

This map highlights the true scale and impact of recent wildfires. To better understand this, burn areas have been derived using satellite imagery and are shown not only in the location where the fire took place, but overlaid in the UK as well.    

Why it works

By positioning the wildfires over a location familiar to us, a better understanding of the scale of each wildfire can be gained. An equal-area projection was used for placing each wildfire over the UK, this distorted each features shape but maintained the correct area.

By using ArcGIS StoryMaps to present the data, the reader can navigate themselves through the map of each wildfire and clearly understand the narrative.

Important Steps

  • 1.

    Download burn index raster data from the Sentinel Explorer, or find existing fire perimeter datasets online or from ArcGIS Online.

  • 2.

    In ArcGIS Pro, convert the raster data to polygons. Use the Modify feature tools to merge the polygons and generalise the features.

  • 3.

    Switch the coordinate system of the map to an equal-area projection. Use the Move tool to shift a copy of the feature to the new location. Switch the map projection back to Web Mercator.

  • 4.

    Publish the data to ArcGIS Online and play around with the symbology to best tell your story.

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Requirements

  • Data and software

    This map was created using raster layers obtained from the Sentinel Explorer and processed in ArcGIS Pro. Some of the wildfire features were obtained from pre-existing fire perimeter datasets. ArcGIS StoryMaps was used to present the map.

  • Analysis

    Editing tools in ArcGIS Pro were used to merge and generalise polygon features, derived from raster imagery. An equal-area map projection was used when moving features to maintain the area and therefore allow for an accurate size comparison to the UK.

  • Time

    Once the processing method was decided for the raster layers, obtaining the burn area features as polygons was relatively quick and easy. However, it took some time to find high quality satellite imagery of each fire in the Sentinel Explorer.

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Tips and tricks

  • tip-1-agbi

    Use the modify features tools

    From the Edit tab in ArcGIS Pro, you can merge, generalise and move features. You can also create an ‘Array’ as done for the Sicily wildfire. 

  • tip-2-abri

    Export your layers

    When you are modifying a feature, make sure to export the layer first to avoid editing the underlying dataset.

  • tip-3-agbi

    Play around with your symbology

    Tell your map’s story by altering the symbology and maybe even the basemap, to replicate real-world features.

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Links & Resources

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Amy Luscombe

Map Author

Amy Luscombe

Amy is a Graduate Consultant at Esri UK and has a background in physical geography. Whether it’s running, cycling or skiing, Amy enjoys all things outdoors!

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