Article
Multispectral indices for wildfire management
Frontiers in Remote Sensing
— 2026 — Frontiers
Key information
Authors:
Published in
May 4, 2026
Abstract
The increasing frequency and severity of wildfires necessitates advanced methods for effective surveillance and management, as traditional ground-based techniques often struggle to adapt to rapidly changing fire behavior and environmental conditions. This study investigates the use of multispectral aerial and satellite imagery for wildfire management through an assessment of current literature and two practical case studies. We evaluate several multispectral indices for their ability to extract environmental features critical for analyzing wildfire behavior, including vegetation, water bodies, and artificial structures. Our results highlight NDVI for vegetation, MNDWI for water features, and MSR for artificial structures as particularly effective for segmentation and feature extraction. The application of these indices enhances wildfire data processing and supports improved monitoring, risk assessment, and response strategies, demonstrating the potential of multispectral imagery to complement traditional wildfire monitoring and management approaches.
Publication details
Authors in the community:
Nuno Fachada
ist145239
Publication version
VoR - Version of Record
Publisher
Frontiers
Link to the publisher's version
https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2026.1807451
Title of the publication container
Frontiers in Remote Sensing
First page or article number
1807451
Volume
7
ISSN
2673-6187
Fields of Science and Technology (FOS)
earth-and-related-environmental-sciences - Earth and related environmental sciences
Keywords
- geoscience
- multispectral imaging
- multispectral indices
- remote sensing
- wildfire
Publication language (ISO code)
eng - English
Rights type:
Open access
Creative Commons license
CC-BY - Attribution
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: INESC INOV – Laboratório de Investigação & Desenvolvimento
Funding Stream: Avaliação UID 2023/2024
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: UID/06486/2025
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: INESC INOV – Laboratório de Investigação & Desenvolvimento
Funding Stream: Avaliação UID 2023/2024 PRR
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: UID/PRR/6486/2025
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: INESC INOV – Laboratório de Investigação & Desenvolvimento
Funding Stream: EQUIPAR +2 - UID.PRR2
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: UID/PRR2/06486/2025
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: João P. Matos-Carvalho
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: 2023.15441.TENURE.051/CP00003/CT00029
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: LASIGE Centro de Investigação em Ciência e Engenharia da Computação
Funding Stream: Avaliação UID 2023/2024
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: UID/00408/2025
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: LASIGE Centro de Investigação em Ciência e Engenharia da Computação
Funding Stream: Avaliação UID 2023/2024 PRR
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: UID/PRR/00408/2025
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: Centro de Tecnologias e Sistemas (CTS)
Funding Stream: Avaliação UID 2023/2024
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: UID/00066/2025
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: Centro de Tecnologias e Sistemas (CTS)
Funding Stream: Avaliação UID 2023/2024 PRR
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: UID/PRR/00066/2025
Financing entity
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Title of the project, award or grant: A computational pipeline for modeling and predicting wildfire behavior
Funding Stream: CEEC INST 2ed
Identifier for the funding entity: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
Type of identifier of the funding entity: Crossref Funder
Number for the project, award or grant: CEECINST/00002/2021/CP2788/CT0001
Financing entity
Instituto Lusófono de Investigação e Desenvolvimento
Title of the project, award or grant: FireGuard: Fire Management with Autonomous UAV Navigation
Funding Stream: Seed Funding
Identifier for the funding entity: http://isni.org/isni/0000000458956849
Type of identifier of the funding entity: ISNI
Number for the project, award or grant: COFAC/ILIND/COPELABS/1/2024