Man-made wildfires
Greenpeace mapping experts have conducted an analysis of major wildfires across Siberia to identify cases where wildfires were spatially linked to man-made objects such as roads, logging, settlements, or prescribed burnings.
Each year Russia loses two million hectares of forest as a result of catastrophic fires. According to official statistics, nine out of ten wildfires in the country are caused by humans. To investigate the role human activity plays in forest fires, Greenpeace mapping experts conducted this analysis of major wildfires across Siberia in 2018. The total area analysed is 3.9 million square kilometres and includes four large regions: Amur, Irkutsk, Zabaykalsky and Krasnoyarsk. GIS specialists analysed satellite imagery to identify cases where wildfires were spatially linked to man-made objects such as roads, logging, settlements, or prescribed burnings. The presence of man-made objects close to the starting point of a wildfire does not conclusively prove it is anthropogenic, but does indicate a high probability that it is – particularly in sparsely-populated regions.
See the version in Russian here