Information Bulletin - 174
Copernicus Emergency Management Service Monitors
Wildfires in Portugal
Date: 1 October 2024
While floods devastate several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, wildfires have been
ravaging northern and central regions of Portugal since 14 September in what is being
reported as Portugal's worst fire outbreak in recent years.
A combination of higher temperatures than usual, low humidity, and strong winds facilitated
the spread of the fires, which have reportedly caused five deaths and injured 182 people.
In response to this crisis, the European Union initiated a coordinated effort to tackle the
situation. Portugal requested the activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to support
the emergency response. As a result, eight firefighting planes from Spain, Italy, France, and
Greece have been mobilised. In addition, more than 5,000 firefighters have been tackling the
fire, and the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) On-Demand Mapping
component has been activated to provide further support.
Figure 1: Wildfire in northern Portugal. (Credit: French General Directorate of Civil Security and Crisis
Management via the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations X account)
Wildfire Situation in Portugal
Wildfires are a recurring challenge in Portugal, with the wildfire season typically beginning in
early July. This year has seen particularly severe situation, most notably since early August
when large wildfires broke out on the island of Madeira, which was another case in which the
CEMS On-Demand Mapping Component was activated.
Despite this, as of 8 September, the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) reported
a total burnt area of 16,350 hectares for the entire year, significantly lower than the 2006-
2023 reference period.
However, by 29 September, this area had increased almost ninefold to more than 146,000
hectares, which is more than double the average burnt area for the reference period. This
year's figures are the highest burnt area since the devastating 2017 wildfire season when one
of the most serious fires in Portugal’s recent history ravaged the area around Pedrógão
Grande, south of Coimbra.
In response to the current fires, Portuguese Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, declared a
“state of emergency” in the affected areas.
The graph below compares the areas burnt in 2024 (red line) with the areas burnt on average
between 2006 and 2023 (blue line) and with the historical highs and lows (grey area).
Figure 2: European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) statistics for the cumulative burnt area in Portugal. Situation as of
29 September 2024. (Credit: European Union, Copernicus EMS, 2024)
On-Demand Mapping Activities
On 16 September, the Copernicus EMS On-Demand Mapping Component was activated for
the second time this year by the Portuguese National Authority for Civil Protection. They were
tasked with monitoring the consequences of the fire in the Sever do Vouga area, south of
Porto (EMSR760).
The following day, the Mapping team delivered its first Delineation Product for the area of
interest using a WorldView-3 optical satellite image acquired on the same day. Within three
days of the fire’s outbreak, a burnt area of more than 15,000 hectares had been detected in
the analysed area. For comparison, this is significantly larger (by more than 5,000 hectares)
than the wildfire which ravaged the surroundings of Athens, in Greece, earlier this year.
Figure 3: Data visualisation showing the temporal evolution of the burnt area caused by the wildfires in the Sever do Vouga
Area of Interest. This is based on data from the Delineation Products released by the CEMS On-Demand Mapping
component between 17 and 18 September 2024. (Credit: European Union, Copernicus EMS, 2024).
As the wildfire situation in the region continued to escalate, on 18 September, the CEMS On-
Demand Mapping team was tasked with monitoring three additional Areas of Interest (AoIs):
Região Norte e Centro (AoI02), Região Centro (AoI03), and Região Norte (AoI04).
On 20 September, the first set of Delineation Products for these additional areas was
delivered. GeoEye-1 optical satellite imagery was used for AoI03 and AoI04, while WorldView-
2 optical satellite imagery was used for AoI02, all acquired on 19 September.
Figure 4: Data visualisation showing the Delineation Products delivered by the CEMS On-Demand Mapping Component for
the wildfires in Portugal. Situation as of 21 September 2024. (Credit: European Union, Copernicus EMS, 2024)
Between 16 and 24 September, a total of 11 mapping products were delivered, revealing a
total burnt area of 111,323.6 hectares — an area more than 11 times the size of Lisbon.
Table 1: Total number of products delivered, and the burnt area detected for monitoring the consequences of wildfires in
Portugal.
Area of Interest Products Delivered Burnt Area (ha) Latest Update
AoI01 – Sever do Vouga 4 21,262.5 23/09/2024
AoI02 – Região Norte e Centro 3 55,966.8 30/09/2024
AoI03 – Região Centro 2 13,335 24/09/2024
AoI04 – Região Norte 2 20,759.3 24/09/2024
Total 10 111,323.6 ha
The timely delivery of CEMS On-Demand Mapping products played a key role in the
coordinated EU response and in supporting emergency efforts on the ground.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE COPERNICUS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SERVICE
(EMS)
The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS)[1], one of the six Copernicus services, provides
information for emergency response in relation to different types of disasters, including
meteorological hazards, geophysical hazards, deliberate and accidental man-made disasters and other
humanitarian disasters, as well as prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery activities.
Beneficiary end users of EMS include entities and organisations at regional, national, European, and
international levels. These users act primarily in the field of civil protection and humanitarian aid.
CEMS consists of three main components, as outlined below:
1. The CEMS On-demand Mapping component provides, upon
activation by Authorised Users[2], timely and accurate information derived from
satellite or airborne image data during all phases of the disaster management
cycle. The information generated can be used as provided (e.g. as digital or
printed map outputs), or further combined with other data sources (e.g. as digital
feature sets in a geographic information system) to support geospatial analysis
and decision-making processes by disaster managers. A regular validation of the
released products identifies possible improvements and product evolutions. The
following two modules are in place:
• Rapid Mapping consists of the provision of geospatial information in
support of emergency management activities immediately following a
disaster. Different types of maps are produced: the Reference product to
ascertain the situation before the event; the First Estimate product; the
Delineation product to assess the geographical extent of the event with
respectively a rough or detailed assessment; and the Grading product to
evaluate the magnitude and impact of the damage resulting from the event.
• Risk & Recovery Mapping consists of the provision of geospatial
information in support of disaster management activities which are not
related to immediate emergency response, but rather to pre-disaster risk
assessment or post-disaster recovery monitoring. This applies to activities
dealing with prevention, preparedness, disaster risk reduction, and recovery
phases.
2. The CEMS Early Warning and Monitoring component provides early
warning, risk and impact assessment, and monitoring of specific natural hazards.
Currently this component addresses floods, forest fires and droughts, as
follows:
• The European and Global Flood Awareness Systems (EFAS & GloFAS)
as well as the Global Flood Monitoring tool (GFM) provide complementary
flood forecast and monitoring information to relevant stakeholders
supporting flood risk management at national, regional, and global level.
• The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) monitors forest
fire activity in NRT, in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and supports
wildfire management at national and regional scales. The JRC leads
development of a global version of EFFIS, the Global Wildfire Information
System (GWIS).
• The European and Global Drought Observatories (EDO & GDO)
provide drought-relevant information and early warnings at the European
and global levels respectively, publishing short analytical reports in the case
of imminent droughts, and connecting drought data providers and users at
global and regional levels.
3. The CEMS Exposure Mapping component provides, with the Global
Human Settlements Layer (GHSL), highly accurate information derived from
satellite and census data on the presence of settlements and population. The
results of this component are used in the on-demand mapping and early warning
and monitoring products.
The Copernicus Programme
Copernicus, the European Earth Observation and Monitoring Programme, is served by dedicated
satellites (the family of Copernicus Sentinels) and a set of Contributing Missions (additional satellites
from existing commercial and national agencies). Since the launch of Sentinel-1A in 2014, the
European Union set in motion a process to place a constellation of almost 20 more satellites in orbit
before 2030.
Six Copernicus Services transform the full, free, and open data into value-added information by
processing and analysing the data to transform them into services and products such as informative
maps, data sets and reports.
These six services are:
1. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service
2. The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service
3. The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service
4. The Copernicus Climate Change Service
5. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service
6. The Copernicus Security Service
Copernicus is coordinated and managed by DG DEFIS in the European Commission. It is implemented
in partnership with the EU Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European
Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for
Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies, and Mercator Ocean. The European
Commission’s Joint Research Centre is responsible for the implementation of the Copernicus
Emergency Management Service, whilst the Emergency Response Coordination Centre of DG ECHO
assists civil protection actors with the handling of EMS mapping requests on a 24/7 basis.
For more information
Copernicus website: copernicus.eu
Copernicus Emergency Management Service website: emergency.copernicus.eu
On Twitter @CopernicusEMS
https://emergency.copernicus.eu/
[1]
Authorised Users include the National Focal Points (NFPs) of the EU Member States and countries participating in the
[2]
Copernicus programme, as well as European Commission services and the European External Action Service (EEAS), including
the EU Delegations. Interested Users may trigger the service by sending a Service Request Form (SRF) directly to the European
Response Coordination Centre (ERCC): [email protected].
