Use case adapted from the UN-GGIM Europe report on “Data Integration – Definition of priority user needs for combinations of data” published in October, 2015.
In September 2013 the Portuguese government issued Statistics Portugal to conduct a survey on the impact of five huge forest fires that had occurred that summer. The magnitude of these forest fires led the Portuguese emergency authorities of the civil protection to activate the Copernicus emergency services. The survey was developed by Statistics Portugal in coordination with several national and local authorities (the National Civil Protection authority, the Municipal authorities, the National Guard, the Portuguese Environmental Agency, among others). Through spatial analysis, combining several spatial units from different sources with the area of the forest fires (their perimeter) Statistics Portugal was able to determine:
- the total area and perimeter affected by the fires
- the Natura 2000 network areas affected
- the Forest zoning plans affected areas
- the Hunting zoning plans affected areas
- the Land Cover and Land Use areas, typologies and species affected
- the buildings, the dwellings and their respective residents located inside the fires perimeters.
The joint effort to determine the impacts and damages caused on both public and private property supported the Portuguese Government in the set up of a pack of compensatory measures to compensate the owners and landlords hit by the catastrophe.
Protected areas units affected by the Covilhã forest fire
