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Evros, Dadia forest

The largest single wildfire recorded in the EU.

8,237.8 hectares changed — burnt ground · Before: 1 May 2023 – 15 Jul 2023 · After: 1 Sep 2023 – 15 Nov 2023 · 41.100, 26.150

BEFORE 2023-07

AFTER 2023-11

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8,237.8 haarea changed

21areas flagged

10,020 haarea examined

2satellites used

What changed, by type

8,208.4 haBurnt ground

29.5 haVegetation cleared

Land changes in both directions at once. SCOPE reports every type it measured, not only the one that makes the better headline.

What SCOPE found

Burnt ground — 8,117.5 ha
0.6 km west · between 14 Jul 2023 and 12 Sep 2023 · 95% sure

Burnt ground — 86.2 ha
6.4 km north-east · between 14 Jul 2023 and 12 Sep 2023 · 94% sure

Vegetation cleared — 6.9 ha
4.7 km south-east · between 14 Jul 2023 and 12 Sep 2023 · 86% sure

Vegetation cleared — 5.4 ha
5.4 km south-east · between 14 Jul 2023 and 12 Sep 2023 · 89% sure

Vegetation cleared — 3.9 ha
4.8 km north-east · between 24 Jun 2023 and 9 Jul 2023 · 88% sure

How sure is this?

The strongest area (#1) has 95% confidence. It appears in 6 of 6 later clear images, so it is not a one-day artefact. Radar confirmed some of these areas; the others rest on optical and seasonal evidence. Compared with the same season in earlier years, this is clearly unusual. Confidence measures how strong the evidence for real surface change is; it does not identify the cause or who did it.

How it was measured

SCOPE used Sentinel-2 optical imagery at 10 m, cloud-masked and combined over each period, Sentinel-1 radar as an independent check , and the same season in earlier years so normal seasonal change is not reported as real change. The analysis took 20 seconds.

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