Over 2,528 hectares have been burnt in the Dadia National Park in NE Greece following a fire raging since July 21, according to maps of Greece's National Observatory of Forest Fires (NOFFi) released on Monday.

NOFFi, which provides a semi-automatic burned area mapping service (NOFFi-OBAM), also said that over 1,709 hectares had been burnt in Vatera on Lesvos island. An assessment of the fire on Penteli mountain near Athens will be provided later, with preliminary figures hinting at a destruction of 2,430 hectares.

The maps provided to Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) are based on preliminary analysis of satellite images, expected to be updated with images from satellite Sentinel-2 when the fires have been extinguished. They will be used by agencies, ministries, the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, and the Interbalkan Environmental Center (working with the EU and UN agencies) in plans for restoration of the forestland.

Professor of Forestry and Natural Environment Ioannis Gitas, who is also director of the University of Thessaloniki's Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote-Sensing, told ANA-MPA that there were more fires in Greece this July compared to 2021, while the heatwaves have also occurred earlier than last year. 

Restoring Dadia

Speaking of the protected area of Dadia, home of several endangered flora and fauna, Gitas explained that the fire will affect each species differently in terms of whether it can reproduce and survive. Plans for the area's restoration will depend on an assessment by area. "In some zones, reforestation may be the advisable method, anti-flood works in others, and yet more areas may be allowed to grow back naturally," he noted. 

Data used in the maps is available at the link http://fmrsvm.for.auth.gr/.

- Smaro Avramidou

(Maps provided for ANA-MPA use by the National Observatory of Forest Fires,NOFFi)

See also: Lesvos, Ilia wildfires contained; Dadia national park wildfire spreads to the southwest