Presto Products Blog Energy Infrastructure and Climate Change: Protecting Erodible Slopes in Fire-Prone Areas

Energy infrastructure is critical to the functioning of modern societies, and its protection against natural disasters and environmental threats is a top priority. Climate change exacerbates these disaster risks, with extreme weather conditions and wildfires being of particular concern, considering potential damage to the energy infrastructure and disruption of energy supply. Wildfires cause rapid, severe destruction, and, aside from damage to infrastructure, can impact our climate, vegetation, and atmosphere. To measure the size and impact wildfires have, scientists use observations from several low Earth-orbit satellites, including the Copernicus Sentinel-3. These tracking satellites gather shortwave-infrared data combined with other techniques to differentiate between burned areas and other low reflectance covers such as clouds. The European Space Agency (ESA) compiles that long-term dataset to analyze global fire trends. According to the ESA, fire affects an estimated four million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles) of Earth´s land each year [1]. That is 400,000,000 hectares (990,000,000 acres) yearly-about half the size of the United States of America, an area larger than the country of India. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Rapid Response Assessment on Wildfires compiles findings from over 50 experts from research institutions, government agencies, and international organizations around the globe, and... Read more »The post Energy Infrastructure and Climate Change: Protecting Erodible Slopes in Fire-Prone Areas first appeared on Presto Geosystems.