Satellite survey finds Cyprus wildfires destroyed 125 sq km

The devastating wildfire that broke out in Limassol district on Wednesday before being put out late on Thursday is estimated to have burned approximately 125 sq.km., according to satellite-based analysis by a local university-funded research centre.

The fire, exacerbated by strong winds and near-record high temperatures of 45 celsius, killed two people, threatened a handful of villages in the ‘wine country’ and resulted in the evacuation of 14 communities.

Initial reports by the fire service said it was arson, an allegation which the government quickly tried to refute amid criticism of incompetence.

The Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence, established by the Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak) in Limassol in 2007, assessed the damage based on high‑resolution PlanetScope satellite data acquired early Thursday.

An announcement by Eratosthenes said that “as the fire was still active at the time of image acquisition, a revised assessment will follow using the next available satellite image to minimise potential errors caused by smoke and to enable a comprehensive damage evaluation.”

According to data from the WorldCover Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA), 50% of the total burned area was grassland, 31% was sclerophyllous vegetation, 16% was tree cover, and 1.3% corresponds to built‑up areas.

The Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence, that became autonomous in 2019 with €38 mln funding from the EU and Cyprus, serves as both a digital innovation hub and a centre of research excellence.

It employs space technologies, remote sensing, and earth observation data in the areas of environment and climate (atmosphere, agriculture, water resources management), resilient societies (floods, wildfires, landslides, energy, maritime surveillance, management of archaeological sites) and big geo‑data analytics (artificial intelligence, geoinformatics, etc.).