Canada is home to 367 million hectares of forest, including a quarter of the world’s boreal forests. Hotter, drier conditions are increasing wildfire risk and could double the area burned in coming decades. Image source: Canadian Forest Service
Wildfire response gets most of the attention once a fire is moving toward a community. Aircraft are deployed, crews are repositioned, evacuation routes are activated and emergency maps are updated. Prevention begins much earlier. And it begins with fuel. There is no fire without it.
Before a community can reduce the surrounding fuel loads it needs to know where the hazardous fuel is, which assets are most exposed, and where treatment is likely to make the greatest reduction in wildfire risk to the community and its residents. Once that work is complete, they also need a way to monitor it.
In Canada this information is not easily available to communities. Over the years, more homes have been built in the wildland urban interface (WUI), increasing exposure to homes and infrastructure.
Phil Green, Vice President of Forestry at EarthDaily, recently argued in the Financial Post that governments need to get as good at preventing communities from burning as they are at fighting wildfires. Doing that requires a more current view of fuel and wildfire likelihood shaping risk before ignition.
Fuel reduction can take many forms: thinning dense stands, removing understory vegetation, prescribed or cultural burning, commercial harvesting or changing forest composition through silvicultural practices.
The first challenge is deciding where to focus around and even within communities.
EarthDaily’s Fire Likelihood AI Model (FLAIM) combines regular satellite observations, daily weather data and other geospatial information to produce wildfire probability and fuel hazard intelligence at scale. Fuel hazard represents the vegetation component of wildfire risk. It is produced at 10m resolution, is updated annually, and is consistent across Canada.
That creates a more current picture of where vegetation conditions may be contributing to elevated hazard and where closer assessment and treatment may be needed.
Insurers can use fuel hazard to understand exposure and hazard, informing pricing and underwriting. Foresters can use it to help plan fuel treatments. Utilities can assess conditions around corridors and infrastructure.
The value is in high resolution, current information available consistently across Canada and the US. This enables risk assessment and risk mitigation with the confidence that the data is current and accurate.
Identifying where to treat is only half the job. Fuel-reduction programs involve significant public and private investment. Governments may fund community mitigation. Insurers may support resilience programs. Land managers may carry out prescribed burning or thinning. Utilities may clear vegetation around critical infrastructure.
Eventually, each faces the same question: did the work change the conditions it was intended to change?
As EarthDaily Constellation data becomes available, its frequent coverage can add a more detailed, current view of treated areas. Combined with FLAIM Fuel Hazard data, that can help organizations revisit mitigation sites over time to assess whether fuel conditions have changed as intended and where further treatment may be needed.
For organizations paying for mitigation, that kind of follow-up is important. It can help show value-for-money and whether fuel-hazard conditions changed as expected and whether further treatment may be needed.
The same question does not disappear after one successful intervention. Vegetation grows back. Land use changes. Fuel conditions continue to evolve.
Wildfire prevention therefore needs to be monitored over time, not mapped once and filed away.
Wildfire risk is shaped by fuel, weather and terrain. EarthDaily’s FLAIM draws on multiple satellites sources, land use data and weather data, enabling it to update wildfire likelihood as often as daily.
A municipality may need to know where treatment around a community should be prioritized. A forester may need to identify where fuel conditions are becoming more hazardous. An insurer may want to understand whether exposure has changed across a portfolio. A utility may need to reassess vegetation around critical infrastructure.
Each decision depends on seeing current conditions clearly enough to act before ignition.
Getting better at preventing communities from burning starts with knowing where the risk is building before the fire arrives.
See how FLAIM can support wildfire risk assessment, fuel-hazard monitoring and mitigation planning across large areas.