Can NASA Stop Wildfires?

Catalog description

Wildfires are an escalating crisis on a global scale, both affected by and affecting climate change. According to a UNEP report, the global increase of extreme fires continues to escalate, projected to be up 14% by 2030 and 30% by the end of 2050. Megafires occur on every continent except Antarctica, and year-over-year are impacting areas previously unaffected by fires, including rainforests, permafrost and peatland swamps. These fires have devastating impacts to our human planet, including economic destruction, loss of biodiversity, air pollution, toxic residue, erosion, degraded watersheds and loss of human lives. Over the last several decades, NASA and its partners have been steadily seeking to provide solutions to this global crisis. This course explores the various, complex and interconnected dimensions of the growing threat of wildfires and the decades-long work that space agencies have been making toward supporting wildfire management with a focus on the role that Earth observation (EO) satellites can play in prevention, detection and mitigation. Uses geographic information systems (GIS) in Google Earth Engine (GEE) to assess the impact of a major historic wildfire. Students propose a solution and conduct a what-if analysis to estimate the change to that initial analysis. Through guest lectures, readings and project work, examines how space technologies, global policy and social systems intersect in tackling this critical issue.