In the damage assessment module of EFFIS burned areas forest fires are mapped at the end of every fire season, i.e. satellite imagery acquired at the end of September/October every year. This module, which was based on the use of WiFS images of 180m ground spatial resolution, has been largely improved in 2007 towards the use of high-spatial resolution satellite imagery.

The current images used for fire damage assessment are acquired by the Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) on board of the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) with a spatial ground resolution of 56 m or the Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellites (DMC), with a spatial ground resolution of 32 m. The spectral and spatial information provided by these satellites allows the mapping of the burnt scars produced by fires of about 5 to 10 ha or larger. In terms of the total burnt area in Europe, this figure corresponds to over 90% of the area burnt by fires every year.

The maps of burnt areas are further used in conjunction with the EU-CORINE land cover (CLC) database to estimate the damage to forests and other land cover types.

The methodology has the advantage of giving fast evaluations of the burned areas after the end of the fire season. It also provides a harmonized system that permits the comparison of fire damages between the different regions of Europe.