Fire plays important role in shaping ecosystem structure and function. Depending upon the complex effects of fire, it can have either beneficial or harmful effects. In this article, we briefly review the potential of satellite remote sensing data for mapping and monitoring vegetation fires.

Biomass burning is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions, most importantly carbon dioxide (CO2). In this study, we used burnt area estimates derived from the L3JRC product to estimate the CO2 emissions from forests. The results suggested than an average of 2,414 sq.kms is burnt annually.

Biomass burning is an essential part of slash-and-burn (S&B) agriculture, which is widely practiced as an important food production system in the tropical mountains of southeast Asia.S&B agriculture used to be sustainable and carbon neutral; CO2 emissions by biomass burning were balanced with photosynthetic biomass growth and land use was stable.

In 1996, the National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) began using NOAA-AVHRR data for fire monitoring in Mongolia. It expanded its detection technology with the addition of TERRA and AQUA MODIS data, giving it a spatial resolution of 250 m as of 2008, and developed a related methodology and technology for detection and monitoring of active fires and mapping of burned areas over Mongolia.

MODIS hotspot data from NASA have now become a standard means of evaluating vegetation fires worldwide. Remote sensing is the most effective tool for large countries like Russia because it is hard to obtain exact, detailed forest fire data. Accumulated MODIS hotspot data of the nine years from 2002 to 2010 may allow us to assess recent changes in the vegetation fire incidence in Russia.

Forest based industry and business is not only important for the economic development of the country. It also provides employment to rural people living near or inside the forest. The aim of present study was to identify districts in Orissa having potential for forest based, industrial development, considering vegetation, socio economic and infrastructural variables using GIS modeling and analysis.

In many Caribbean countries a lack of established good practice methods means that engineers and planners are often unable to plan for and mitigate floods effectively. In most Caribbean states rainfall intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curves are not readily available.

Some scientists have argued from observations that global warming will alter clouds in ways that will largely counter warming by greenhouse gases. But the overwhelming majority of climate scientists sides with the models, which show clouds changing in ways that amplify warming, not dampen it. Whom to believe? To help sort it out, a climate researcher looked at the example of El Niño and La Niña, naturally occurring weather patterns that cause warming (El Niño) and cooling (La Niña) in the tropical Pacific and around the globe.