Top of the list · demonstration indicator
13-29-2-08-377 -t -03
- Score
- 92 / 100
- Flammability class
- A
- Area
- 0.25 ha
- Cover change
- 2026 · to verify
- Road access
- 561 m
- Water point
- 1,148 m
Satellite intelligence for forest fire preparedness
Which stands
first?
Orbilas combines Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery with the open Forest Data Bank records and marks the stands to check first — with the reason next to each one. Results go straight into QGIS, with no new system to deploy.
Join the pilot See how it works
Demonstration area: Nadleśnictwo Węgliniec, RDLP Wrocław
Why
What has to be done before the season
The yearly preparation — firebreaks and mineralisation, checking fire access roads and water points, updating maps — requires a decision on which stands to treat first. The stand description is updated periodically, while conditions in the field change every season.
Instead of reviewing the whole forest district, work can start from a short list of stands — each with the reason next to it: flammability class, cover change detected by the satellite, or distance to the nearest road.
- What the satellite sees — cover change: clear-cuts, windthrow, young plantations, and the season it happened in.
- What it does not see — dry grass, litter or logging residue. That is why the lists are material for field verification, not a hazard assessment.
- What BDL adds — the official flammability class, stand structure, fire access roads and water points.
02 — District
One forest district, stand by stand
The demonstration covers Nadleśnictwo Węgliniec in the Lower Silesian pine forests (Bory Dolnośląskie). Every stand is analysed on open data only.
- Stands
- 5,150
- Area
- 15.9k ha
- Open sources
- 3
- Forest stands (BDL)
- Fire access roads (BDL)
- District boundary
03 — Stand ranking
Which stands to check first
Stands are ordered by the official flammability class (Annex 1 to the State Forests' fire protection instruction) and by stand structure from the Forest Data Bank.
- Top 5 by indicator
Weights are an assumption, not calibrated on fire data.
04 — Cover change
What changed in 2025–2026
Sentinel-2 detected a cover change in 36 stands over the last two seasons — a ready list to compare with the stand description.
- 2025
- 17
- 2026
- 19
- Total area
- 106 ha
- Change 2025 (17 stands)
- Change 2026 (19 stands)
Agreement with the current BDL record needs field verification.
05 — Access & water
How far to the nearest road
Distance from the centre of every stand to the nearest public road or fire access road — and to the nearest water point.
- Beyond 750 m
- 88
- Their area
- 217 ha
- Fire danger category
- I
- Centre beyond 750 m (88 stands)
- Fire access roads (BDL)
Not a compliance check: measured from the stand centre; public roads from OpenStreetMap.
Roadmap
Where we are going
The demonstration shows what works today: the stand ranking, cover change and distances. In the pilot we want to add what the stand description alone does not show.
- Fuel dryness — a vegetation moisture indicator from the Sentinel-2 SWIR bands (NDMI), calibrated on field data. Today we compute it in a research version and keep it out of the ranking.
- Updates during the season — the list refreshed after further satellite passes, not once before the season.
- Scale — the same method for every forest district in the regional directorate, because it runs on open data only.
This is what our submission to the ESA Business Applications programme is about; the pilot with a forest district is there to verify these three things in the field.
06 — Delivery
Straight into QGIS
Results come as a GeoPackage layer or CSV table and a PDF report, in Polish. No new system to deploy.
Looking for a pilot user
We are preparing a submission to the ESA Business Applications programme (Wildfire Preparedness) and are looking for a forest district or regional directorate to act as a pilot user. Participation is free of charge.
Contact us Correspondence in Polish or English.