Rapid and repeatable determination of the area affected and the burn severity of the forest fire that occurred in the Aksu and Kepez districts of Antalya in September 2026, using pre- and post-fire Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and the dNBR method in Google Earth Engine.
After large forest fires, official data on the size of the affected area and the severity of the damage are often released late or not shared at all. This project aimed to reveal the impact of the 2026 Aksu–Kepez fire independently and objectively using satellite data. Pre- and post-fire images were compared and burn severity was mapped according to the Key and Benson (2006) classification, a widely used reference in the international literature; to prevent agricultural and settlement areas from being incorrectly counted as burned, the analysis was restricted to forest areas using the ESA WorldCover land cover dataset. The resulting burn severity map shows the spatial distribution of damage, supporting the prioritisation of response and rehabilitation efforts, and provides a baseline for monitoring post-fire vegetation recovery in the area.
