A Comparative Assessment of Sentinel-1 SAR with Optical Indices for Cloud-resilient Wildfire Mapping

Sohaib K M Abujayyab

doi:10.33904/ejfe.1618178

A Comparative Assessment of Sentinel-1 SAR with Optical Indices for Cloud-resilient Wildfire Mapping

Abstract

Accurate and timely wildfire mapping is essential for effective post-fire management and mitigation. This study evaluates the potential of Sentinel-1 (S1) SAR VH cross-polarization data for burned area mapping in a Mediterranean forest ecosystem near Marmaris, Türkiye, and compares its performance with established optical indices from Sentinel-2 (S2) data. Post-fire imagery was analyzed using the NBR, NBRT1, and BAI indices, with accuracy assessed against Landsat 9 OLI data. The results showed that S2_NBR outperformed all other methods, achieving the highest overall accuracy (97.4%) and F1-score (0.97). S2_BAI and S2_NBRT1 also delivered strong results, while S1_SAR had a lower overall accuracy (69.2%) but achieved perfect precision (1), meaning it effectively avoided false positives. However, S1_SAR had limitations in detecting the full extent of burned areas (lower recall). SAR data, with its ability to penetrate clouds, highlights its value as a complement to optical methods by ensuring continuous monitoring when cloud-free optical imagery is unavailable. This study emphasizes the importance of combining data from multiple sensors for reliable wildfire monitoring and guide resource allocation, risk management, and recovery efforts.

Keywords

Wildfire mapping , Sentinel-1 SAR , NBR and NBRT1 , BAI , Mediterranean ecosystem , Cloud-resilient.

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Geomatic Engineering (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Sohaib K M Abujayyab ^*
0000-0002-6692-3567
Palestine

Early Pub Date

August 29, 2025

Publication Date

December 25, 2025

Submission Date

January 14, 2025

Acceptance Date

May 11, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 1970 Volume: 11 Number: 2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.33904/ejfe.1618178

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA85HN39AH

APA

Abujayyab, S. K. M. (2025). A Comparative Assessment of Sentinel-1 SAR with Optical Indices for Cloud-resilient Wildfire Mapping. European Journal of Forest Engineering, 11(2), 95-105. https://doi.org/10.33904/ejfe.1618178

Creative Commons License

The works published in European Journal of Forest Engineering (EJFE) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

A Comparative Assessment of Sentinel-1 SAR with Optical Indices for Cloud-resilient Wildfire Mapping

Abstract

Keywords

References

Details

Primary Language

Subjects

Journal Section

Authors

Early Pub Date

Publication Date

Submission Date

Acceptance Date

Published in Issue

DOI

IZ

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