Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction

Abstract Wildfires play a pivotal role in environmental processes and the sustainable development of ecosystems. Timely responses can significantly reduce the damages and consequences caused by their spread. Several critical issues in wildfire behavior analysis include fire occurrence forecasting, e...

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Main Authors: Svetlana Illarionova, Dmitrii Shadrin, Fedor Gubanov, Mikhail Shutov, Usman Tasuev, Ksenia Evteeva, Maksim Mironenko, Evgeny Burnaev
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-03-01
Series:Scientific Reports
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-94002-4
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author Svetlana Illarionova
Dmitrii Shadrin
Fedor Gubanov
Mikhail Shutov
Usman Tasuev
Ksenia Evteeva
Maksim Mironenko
Evgeny Burnaev
author_facet Svetlana Illarionova
Dmitrii Shadrin
Fedor Gubanov
Mikhail Shutov
Usman Tasuev
Ksenia Evteeva
Maksim Mironenko
Evgeny Burnaev
author_sort Svetlana Illarionova
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Wildfires play a pivotal role in environmental processes and the sustainable development of ecosystems. Timely responses can significantly reduce the damages and consequences caused by their spread. Several critical issues in wildfire behavior analysis include fire occurrence forecasting, early detection, and spread prediction. In this study, we focus on wildfire occurrence forecasting, which is a valuable tool for facilitating earlier intervention. Conventional approaches primarily rely on the computation of fire indices based on weather conditions. However, solutions that utilize more comprehensive environmental data, remote sensing information, and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms may offer substantial advantages for rapid decision-making and extensive territory monitoring. The wide variety of spatial environmental parameters and the great diversity of geographical regions that influence wildfire occurrence complicate this task. Consequently, there is no unified approach for predicting wildfire occurrences using remote sensing data and AI techniques. The goal of this study is to explore the potential of predicting wildfire occurrences using various available environmental parameters - meteorological, geo-spatial, and anthropogenic - and machine learning (ML) algorithms. We developed a unified pipeline for data acquisition and subsequent ML-based algorithm development. The comprehensive analysis includes the following algorithms: Random Forest, XGBoost, Autoencoder, ConvLSTM, Attention Multilayer Perceptron, and RegNetX. In addition, we explore several metrics to assess the quality of developed models in case of highly imbalanced spatio-temporal data. To conduct the study, we collected a unique dataset covering several large regions in central Russia, incorporating more than 17,000 verified wildfire events over a period of 10 years. The findings underscore the necessity of developing individual ML models tailored to each region, taking into account the specific environmental features correlated with the probability of fire occurrence. The quality of the achieved models, as measured by F1-score, varies from 0.7 to 0.87 depending on the region, demonstrating the potential of integrating such algorithms into emergency response systems.
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spelling doaj-art-2e0c65fa3737467c8d61d52450a95f6c2025-08-20T02:49:26ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-03-0115112510.1038/s41598-025-94002-4Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence predictionSvetlana Illarionova0Dmitrii Shadrin1Fedor Gubanov2Mikhail Shutov3Usman Tasuev4Ksenia Evteeva5Maksim Mironenko6Evgeny Burnaev7Skolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologySkolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologyAbstract Wildfires play a pivotal role in environmental processes and the sustainable development of ecosystems. Timely responses can significantly reduce the damages and consequences caused by their spread. Several critical issues in wildfire behavior analysis include fire occurrence forecasting, early detection, and spread prediction. In this study, we focus on wildfire occurrence forecasting, which is a valuable tool for facilitating earlier intervention. Conventional approaches primarily rely on the computation of fire indices based on weather conditions. However, solutions that utilize more comprehensive environmental data, remote sensing information, and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms may offer substantial advantages for rapid decision-making and extensive territory monitoring. The wide variety of spatial environmental parameters and the great diversity of geographical regions that influence wildfire occurrence complicate this task. Consequently, there is no unified approach for predicting wildfire occurrences using remote sensing data and AI techniques. The goal of this study is to explore the potential of predicting wildfire occurrences using various available environmental parameters - meteorological, geo-spatial, and anthropogenic - and machine learning (ML) algorithms. We developed a unified pipeline for data acquisition and subsequent ML-based algorithm development. The comprehensive analysis includes the following algorithms: Random Forest, XGBoost, Autoencoder, ConvLSTM, Attention Multilayer Perceptron, and RegNetX. In addition, we explore several metrics to assess the quality of developed models in case of highly imbalanced spatio-temporal data. To conduct the study, we collected a unique dataset covering several large regions in central Russia, incorporating more than 17,000 verified wildfire events over a period of 10 years. The findings underscore the necessity of developing individual ML models tailored to each region, taking into account the specific environmental features correlated with the probability of fire occurrence. The quality of the achieved models, as measured by F1-score, varies from 0.7 to 0.87 depending on the region, demonstrating the potential of integrating such algorithms into emergency response systems.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-94002-4Fire spreadingComputer visionRemote sensingDeep learningClassificationImage processing
spellingShingle Svetlana Illarionova
Dmitrii Shadrin
Fedor Gubanov
Mikhail Shutov
Usman Tasuev
Ksenia Evteeva
Maksim Mironenko
Evgeny Burnaev
Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction
Scientific Reports
Fire spreading
Computer vision
Remote sensing
Deep learning
Classification
Image processing
title Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction
title_full Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction
title_fullStr Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction
title_full_unstemmed Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction
title_short Exploration of geo-spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction
title_sort exploration of geo spatial data and machine learning algorithms for robust wildfire occurrence prediction
topic Fire spreading
Computer vision
Remote sensing
Deep learning
Classification
Image processing
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-94002-4
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