Mapping Wildfire Burned Areas Using VIIRS Data

[DavidFonsecaG]

Data Science Lifecycle Focus
This lesson will focus on data creation and data analysis, emphasizing the integration of VIIRS burn area data with infrastructure (roads, power lines, and buildings) datasets to assess wildfire damage.

Thematic Focus
The lesson will center on mapping the 2025 Los Angeles - California wildfire. By overlaying burn area data with infrastructure maps, students will explore how wildfires disrupt critical services, including roads, power grids, and buildings.

Key Takeaways

• Learn to access and download VIIRS Burn Area data from NASA’s Earthdata resources.
• Understand how to preprocess and clean satellite data for analysis.
• Gain hands-on experience overlaying burn area data with infrastructure data to identify damaged or high-risk zones.
• Develop skills in visualizing wildfire impacts using GIS tools and remote sensing techniques.
• Explore real-world applications by analyzing case studies such as the Lahaina Wildfires.

[jfmartinez4]

In terms of data creation, you can create a burn area dataset and compare it to other data --population, buildings, critical infrastructure,-etc.- to quantify damages in other ways.

[cdeodati]

I think this is a good and relevant project idea. I would recommend narrowing the area of interest and including some additional variables that you might be interested in like air quality and the areas Juan mentioned above (population, buildings, etc.). You could also look at disaster response and wildfire susceptibility in these regions to get an in-depth analysis.

[DavidFonsecaG]

Hi everyone, thank you for this amazing opportunity to be part of this project. I truly enjoyed the experience and learned a great deal about geospatial data and wildfires.

Here's a link to my GitHub repository hosting my proposed lesson: palisades-fire-mapping-aviris-viirs