Status of the Forest Fire Database Validation of 2011 data submission 30 th Meeting of the EC Expert Group on Forest Fires Sezana, 18/19 April 2013 http://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu effis@jrc.ec.europa.eu
Fire Database contributing countries Joint Member States EC effort 22 Countries, 5-32 years Over 1.6 million forest fires (2.1 million records) Individual fire event records delivered yearly by MS
Contributing countries Country Joined EFFIS Data from to Number of years Portugal 2000 1980 2011 32 Spain 2000 1985 2011 27 France 2000 1985 2011 27 Italy 2000 1985 2011 27 Finland 2000 2004 2011 8 Germany 2000 1994 2011 18 Greece 2000 1983 2011 29 Bulgaria 2002 2005 2011 7 Cyprus 2002 2000 2011 12 Romania 2002 2004 2011 8 Austria 2003 0 Joint Member States EC effort 22 Countries, 5-32 years Over1.6 million forest fires (2.1 million records) Individual fire event records delivered yearly by MS Country Joined EFFIS Data from - to Number of years Czech Republic 2004 2004-2008 5 Hungary 2004 2002-2011 10 Latvia 2004 2004-2011 8 Lithuania 2004 2004-2011 8 Poland 2004 1993-2011 19 Slovenia 2004 1995-2011 17 Slovakia 2004 2004-2011 8 Sweden 2004 1996 2011 16 Turkey 2004 2005-2010(no 2009) 5 U. K. 2005 0 Croatia 2006 1996-2007 12 Estonia 2006 2005-2011 7 Switzerland 2006 1980-2011 32 Montenegro 2007 0 FYROM 2008 0
Data stored in the database as at 04/2013 Forest fire counts COUNTRY 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 BG 251 393 1479 582 314 222 635 CH 79 147 71 107 166 96 76 109 76 168 235 148 70 76 74 87 108 135 91 45 49 48 67 155 49 63 46 65 46 52 57 88 CY 285 299 243 427 221 185 172 111 114 91 133 85 CZ 957 653 697 809 470 DE 706 525 822 276 592 794 930 373 278 1238 300 299 717 435 560 575 525 515 EE 65 248 64 71 47 30 24 ES 12235 7514 8816 9440 20240 12777 13366 15746 14135 18953 25427 16447 22150 21983 17801 23553 19082 19923 18560 21304 25488 16334 10932 11656 15642 11510 16417 FI 2285 1214 3436 1402 1543 1373 1593 1524 FR 3732 2657 2116 2240 3321 3297 2372 2708 4766 4728 6539 6401 8001 6289 4881 4343 4259 4097 7023 3767 4698 4608 3339 2726 4743 3797 4140 GR 945 1184 1417 1088 1234 1798 1203 1283 1036 2008 2707 1955 1494 1527 2271 605 513 1469 1313 572 622 739 718 764 1226 1071 354 540 953 HR 3045 3709 5297 3783 7583 3909 4572 6802 2772 3303 3479 4918 HU 429 373 104 150 97 603 502 608 109 2021 IT 12931 6115 8506 9785 8328 11560 7580 10044 14317 7153 5505 6064 11608 9565 6956 8609 7227 4607 9716 6341 7472 5558 10594 6589 5338 4844 8096 LT 430 267 1444 243 272 471 106 137 LV 647 365 1929 426 716 890 319 373 PL 10705 7678 7923 6817 6165 9820 12426 4480 10101 17087 7006 12049 11541 8295 9072 9160 4680 9220 PT 2349 6730 3626 4542 7356 8441 5036 7705 6131 21896 10745 14327 14954 16101 19983 34116 28626 23497 34676 25477 34109 26944 26498 26183 21855 35698 19929 18754 13836 29771 21250 33400 RO 34 64 105 478 91 190 70 340 SE 4854 7057 2503 4707 4708 4831 6490 8282 4955 4573 4618 3787 5420 4180 3120 3534 SI 38 43 50 133 51 93 55 56 201 43 54 91 106 57 92 33 95 SK 153 287 238 463 182 347 123 303 TR 1530 2227 2706 2135 1861 Total forest fire records >1.6 million
Variables requested ID Unique Fire identifier FIREID TIME OF FIRE Date of first alert [YYYYMMDD] Time of first alert [HHMM] Date of first intervention [YYYYMMDD] Time of first intervention [HHMM] Date of fire extinction [YYYYMMDD] Time of fire extinction [HHMM] DATEAL TIMEAL DATEIN TIMEIN DATEEX TIMEEX LOCATION OF FIRE Province Code (national nomenclature) NUTS3 code Commune Code (national nomenclature) Commune Name (national nomenclature) Latitude [decimal degrees] Longitude [decimal degrees] PROVCODE NUTS3 CODECOM NAMECOM NORTH EAST SIZE OF FIRE Burned Area FOREST [Ha] Burned Area OTHER WOODED LAND [Ha] Burned Area OTHER NON WOODED NATURAL LAND [Ha] Burned Area AGRICULTURE AND OTHER ARTIFICIAL LAND [Ha] BAFOR BAOW BAONW BAAGR CAUSE OF FIRE Presumed Cause (EU categories code) Presumed Cause (Country detailed categories code) CAUSE_EU CAUSE_CO
Raw data Data are requested in Excel and a template is provided. However, other formats are accepted, especially for backdated historic records. All data formats are processed where possible. If it is not possible to process the data as sent, the country are asked to resubmit in a different format
Data flow
Data validation Time of fire Location of fire Size of fire Cause of fire Is the date valid? Does it occur in the same year as the filename? Do date/time of intervention/extinction occur after initial date/time of alert? Is the duration of the fire reasonable given its size? Do the place names exist/are they correctly spelt? Are the commune name/code/nuts consistent? Is the correct code used? Where information are incomplete, is it possible to obtain it from cross-referring other data? If North/East values are given, are they plausible? Are the values plausible (eg. correct units)? Have the categories been assigned correctly? Is the mapping between country code and EU code consistent/correct?
Country data validation reports Coverage (spatial, temporal, thematic) Geo-referencing Burnt area categories Fire size Comparison with official figures Fire causes Transfer old data to new fire causes
Overview 2011 data submission COUNTRY Format Compliant Comments BG xls (YES) Causes are all given in text rather than codes. CODECOM/NAMECOM are LAU1 units, not commune. CH xls YES CY xls YES No province or NUTS code (but CY only has a single NUTS code). CZ - - NO DATA SUBMISSION IN 2011 DE xls NO The old format is used (BA in ha*100, missing values 999, different burnt area types). Dates and times were written in a mixture of text and date formats, requiring special treatment before importing. Only certain regions of DE are submitted. EE csv NO The old format is used (BA in ha*100, missing values 999, different burnt area types). ES mdb (YES) The NUTS3 codes provided are actually a combination of NUTS3+CODECOM. FI xlsx NO DATEAL/TIMEAL all given in a single date-time field. Extra information also given (e.g. number of casualties). No NUTS codes. Burnt areas given according to land type codes. No NORTH/EAST supplied in 2011 (although usually sent in previous years). FR ods YES A separate report on the quality of the data was also supplied. GR xls NO Around 150 columns of data supplied. All codes are in (Greek) text. Burnt areas split by species names. No NUTS or commune codes (national codes are supplied from which NUTS3 must be deduced). Extra information is also given regarding meteorological conditions, terrain type, fire type etc. HR - - NO DATA SUBMISSION IN 2011 HU csv (YES) Data are semi-colon separated. Decimal separator is a comma. IT mix NO LT xls YES 2011 data submission came in 7 separate data files (one for each of the autonomous regions and one for the rest of Italy). 2 were mdb (Access) files and 5 were Excel spreadsheets. Format was different for each one. LV xls NO 4 dates and times supplied (labelled ID1-9). No CODECOM: had to be deduced from NAMECOM. PL csv (YES) PT xlsx (YES) Data are semi-colon separated. Decimal separator is a comma. Special characters in place names were not correctly displayed in the csv file. The word "NULL" is used for null values. Dates all in date-time format and include a time of 00:00:00 (times are given in a separate field). Minimum fire size is 0.000001 ha need to check units for some fires. RO xls (YES) All causes are given in text (no codes). No times only DATEAL and DATEEX. Only BAFOR is supplied. SE xls (YES) No NUTS3 codes these have to be deduced from province code. The words "NULL" and N/A are used for null values. Sometimes 0 (zero) is used for missing dates. Numbers are occasionally formatted as text. New EU cause categories are used but in a mixture of decimal and comma separated characters. SI xls (YES) The character? is used for missing dates. PROVCODE is listed as SI throughout the file. SK xls (YES) The value 9999 is used for null values. TR - - NO DATA SUBMISSION IN 2011
Date and time of fire COUNTRY Number of records Percentage completeness DATEAL TIMEAL DATEIN TIMEIN DATEEX TIMEEX Comment BG 635 100 66.8 99.4 66.1 99.7 66.1 CH 88 100 92.0 0 0 96.6 86.4 CY 85 100 100 100 100 100 100 DE 515 100 99.4 100 91.3 100 91.3 EE 24 100 87.5 100 100 100 95.8 ES 16417 100 99.9 98.2 96.7 100 99.9 FI 2871 100 100 0 0 0 0 FR 4283 100 100 99.98 99.98 99.95 99.95 DATETIME all in 1 field GR 953 99.4 69.0 100 85.8 100 99.2 HU 2021 100 100 100 100 100 100 IT 8181 98.9 98.9 99.6 86.7 99.8 87.4 LT 137 100 100 100 100 100 100 LV 373 100 99.7 100 99.7 100 99.7 PL 40059 100 99.96 100 99.9 100 99.9 PT 38118 100 100 92.3 92.3 93.8 93.8 RO 340 100 0 0 0 100 0 SE 3534 100 100 95.4 95.4 99.6 99.6 SI 114 100 98.2 0 0 100 96.5 SK 303 100 99.7 100 0 100 0 Fires having TIMEAL, TIMEIN and TIMEEX all set to 00:00:00 are assumed to be missing values
Location of fire Administrative information Georeferencing Number of COUNTRY records PROVINCE NUTS3 CODECOM NAMECOM NORTH/EAST CODE BG 635 635 635 0 0 44 CH 88 88 88 88 88 87 CY 85 0 85 85 85 85 DE 515 0 487 487 487 0 EE 24 0 23 24 24 0 ES 16417 16417 16417 16417 16417 15397 FI 2871 2871 2871 2787 2787 0 FR 4283 4283 4282 4282 4282 1642 GR 953 0 953 0 0 953 HU 2021 2021 2021 2016 2017 2021 IT 8181 8181 8181 8181 8181 7240 LT 137 137 137 134 134 137 LV 373 0 373 373 373 373 PL 40059 40059 40059 40059 40059 40058 PT 38118 38105 38118 38118 38118 38118 RO 340 340 335 328 329 340 SE 3534 3534 3534 3534 3534 3274 SI 114 0 114 114 114 114 SK 303 0 303 303 303 0 Cells in blue signify where information had to be generated by JRC Cells in yellow signify where information was supplied but had to be reformatted by JRC
Location of fire: Geo-referencing Country Total number of fires Fires with North/East coordinates Coordinates within country boundaries Coordinates within correct NUTS3 boundaries Coordinates within correct commune boundaries Count % Count % Count % Count % CH 88 87 98.9 87 100 87 100 80 92.0 CY 85 85 100 84 98.8 83 97.6 70 82.4 ES 16417 15397 93.8 15352 99.7 15257 99.1 14713 95.6 FR 4283 1642 38.3 1642 100 1642 100 1598 97.3 GR 953 953 100 878 92.1 839 88.0 N/A N/A HU 2021 2021 100 2021 100 2017 99.8 1907 94.4 IT 8181 7240 88.5 7233 99.9 7205 99.5 7043 97.3 LT 137 137 100 137 100 128 93.4 101 73.7 LV 373 373 100 373 100 373 100 371 99.5 PL 40059 40058 100 40037 99.9 39348 98.2 35499 88.6 PT 38118 38118 100 38071 99.9 37642 98.8 20354 53.4 RO 340 340 100 329 96.8 255 75.0 127 37.4 SE 3534 3274 92.6 3223 98.4 3213 98.1 3152 96.3 SI 114 114 100 114 100 114 100 105 92.1 14 countries submitted East/North data in 2011. Points were checked against the NUTS3 code and commune codes supplied. On average, over 90% of points were found to be located in the same NUTS3 region in which they were reported. Accuracy at commune level is lower, partly caused by rounding of the X/Y coordinates.
Burnt Area Types COUNTRY BAFOR BAOW BAONW BAAGR BG Y N (All 0) Y N (All 0) CH Y N (All null) Y N (All null) CY Y Y N Y DE EE Old format (TBA, FBA, NFBA) Old format (TBA, FBA, NFBA) ES Y Y Y Y FI A code for land type is given and BA is allocated according to land type. Burnt area may belong to 2 different land types FR Y Y Y Y GR Burnt area is assigned to individual tree species/crops. These have to be summed in combinations to get BA type HU Y Y Y Y IT Burnt area generally given by species/crop type. These have to be summed to get BA types. Varies according to region LT Y N (All 0) N (All 0) N (All 0) LV Y (Also Young Forest) Y ( Forest Land ) Y ( Other Land ) PL Y Y Y Y PT Y Y N Y RO Y N N N SE Y Y Y N (All N/A) SI Y Y N (All 0.00) Y SK Y N (All 9999) N (All 9999) N (All 9999) N 3 countries (ES, FR, HU) supply information on all 4 categories directly. In other cases (FI, GR, IT) the categories can be calculated from information given. 2 countries (DE, EE) still submit data in the old format (total burnt area, forest (=BAFOR+BAOW) and nonforest (=BAONW + possibly BAAGR) 14
Fire Causes COUNTRY National codes Old EU codes BG X X CH X X CY X X DE X New EU codes Comment EE X The 4 old EU categories are used, but coded in the new format ES X X FI X FR X X GR X HU X X Only 3 national codes are used, one divided between EU codes 3 / 4 IT X Variety of national codes used depending on region LT X X LV No causes given in 2011 PL X X PT X X RO X X SE X X SI X X SK X Some new EU codes have been given different mappings from those that were assigned by the JRC Most countries now supply detailed country cause codes. DE, EE, HU and SK give only the old 4-category EU cause codes. SE is the first country to have adopted the new detailed fire cause categories 15
Fire size COUNTRY BG CH CY DE EE ES FI FR GR HU IT LT LV PL PT RO SE SI SK Number of zero values Min size (excluding zero) ha Max size ha <0.01 0.01-1 1-5 5-10 Fire size class (ha) 10-50 50-100 100-500 15 0.1 1680.1 15 188 190 94 104 27 15 2 >=500 Unknown size 0.01 130 72 8 3 1 4 0.0001 664.9 9 31 16 12 10 3 3 1 82 0.01 7.8 82 407 24 2 0.01 5 19 4 1 2 0.01 3236.7 2 10816 3446 852 957 173 147 24 1572 0.0001 21 2202 506 139 12 12 149 0.0001 400 905 2355 755 119 121 13 15 1 0.1 2059.6 1 562 215 66 78 10 17 4 0.0001 465.7 157 736 765 183 153 20 7 143 0.0001 2403.39 401 3253 2414 858 1029 147 71 8 0.01 168.2 132 3 1 1 0.001 14.876 37 307 26 2 1 30839 0.01 51 30839 8509 641 59 7 4 13973 0.000001 1720 17298 15557 3808 649 562 122 102 20 0.1 484.6 115 140 38 44 1 2 36 0.0001 82 2224 1152 130 12 14 2 19 0.005 39.02 21 63 26 4 29 0.01 64 29 199 60 6 8 1 12 countries report fires of size zero. 7 countries report non-zero fires of size 0.0001 ha (1 square metre). Minimum fire size reported in PT is 0.000001 ha
Comparison with Official figures Country Official figures Number of fires Database Difference Official figures BA (ha) Database Difference BG 635 635 0 6883 6883 0 CH 76 88-12 222 223-1 CY 85 85 0 1599 1599 0 Comment DE 888 515 373 214 105 109 Not all fires reported to DB EE 24 24 0 19 19 0 ES 16028 16415-387 84490 102162-17672 FI 1215 1524-309 580 591-11 FR 4500 4140 360 9630 8552 1078 Official figures in report may still be provisional Official figures in report were provisional GR 1653 953 700 29144 11933 17211 Not all fires reported to DB HU 2021 2021 0 8055 8056-1 IT 8181 8181 0 72004 71928 76 LT 142 137 5 293 290 3 LV 360 373-13 115 128-13 PL 9220 9220 0 2850 2850 0 PT 25221 33400-8179 73813 73831-18 RO 340 340 0 2195 2195 0 SE 3534 3534 0 945 945 0 SI 114 114 0 288 279 9 SK 303 303 0 403 403 0 Includes AGR fires (without them, differences much greater) Large number of very small and zero size fires included in DB Includes AGR fires (without them, differences much greater)
MENA countries Four MENA countries now supply data for the database. The data are currently undergoing validation and are not yet stored in the database. Country Years Number of records Language Variables Comment Algeria 2012 5044 French Administrative region Date/time of alert, intervention and extinction Burnt area by forest type and ownership Cause Meteorological information Some geo-referenced points are also supplied, but they will need reformatting before it is possible to use them Lebanon 2012 100 Arabic Administrative region Date of alert Tree species burnt Land use Fire type Total burnt area Morocco 2006-2012 3054 French Administrative region Date/time of alert and extinction Burnt area of forest Species burnt North/East Tunisia 1971-1997 2006-2012 1497 French 1747 Arabic Administrative region Date/time of alert and extinction Cause Burnt area Species burnt Few fires before 1985 Data from 1998-2005 to arrive soon 2 fires from 2013 also sent