Wildfires are a natural phenomenon, which nowadays, due to the synergistic effect of increased human intervention and the escalation of climate change, are displaying an ever-increasing intensity and frequency. The underlying mechanisms present increased complexity, with the phenomenon itself being characterized by a significant degree of stochasticity. For the above reasons, machine learning models and neural networks are being implemented. In the current study, two types of neural networks are implemented, namely, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Radial Basis Function Networks (RBF). These neural networks utilize information from the Fire Weather Index (FWI), Fosberg Fire Weather Index (FFWI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), aiming to predict ignitions in a region of Greece. All indices have been developed through the Google Earth Engine platform (GEE). In addition, a new index is proposed named “Vegetation-Enhanced FWI” (FWIveg) in order to enhance the FWI with vegetation information from the NDVI. To increase the robustness of the methodology, a genetic algorithm-based approach was used in order to obtain algorithms for the calculation of the new index. Finally, an artificial neural network was implemented in order to predict the Mati wildfire in Attica, Greece (23 July 2018) by applying the new index FWIveg, aiming to assess both the effectiveness of the new index as well as the ability to predict ignition events using neural networks. Results highlight the effectiveness of the two indices in providing joint information for fire prediction through artificial intelligence-based approaches.

Forest fires are of critical importance in the Mediterranean region. Fire weather indices are meteorological indices that produce information about the impact as well as the characteristics of a fire event in an ecosystem and have been developed for that reason. This study explores the spatiotemporal patterns of the FWI system within a study area defined by the boundaries of the Greek state. The FWI has been calculated and studied for current and future periods using data from the CFSR reanalysis model from the National Centers for Environmental Protection (NCEP) as well as data from NASA satellite programs and the European Commission for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECWMF) in the form of netCDF files. The calculation and processing of the results were conducted in the Python programming language, and additional drought- and fire-related indices were calculated, such as the standardized precipitation index (SPI), number of consecutive 50-day dry periods (Dry50), the Fosberg fire weather index (FFWI), the days where the FWI exceeds values of 40 and 50 days (FWI > 40) and (days FWI > 50). Similar patterns can easily be noted for all indices that seem to have their higher values concentrated in the southeast of the country owing to the higher temperatures and more frequent drought events that affect the indices’ behavior in both the current and future periods.