Scientific need
Long, spatially consistent records are needed to examine seasonality, long-run change, district departures from broader zone patterns and the agreement or mismatch between fire activity and burned area.
Ghana fire research
Ghana Fire Observatory
A research programme connecting long-run fire observations, district analysis, open data and ongoing wildfire-susceptibility modelling
Programme overview
A national evidence base for understanding Ghana’s fire regime
The Ghana Fire Observatory brings together long-run burned-area records, active-fire observations, harmonized district reporting and agro-climatic context. It is designed to make differences between fire activity and fire impact visible, document data support honestly and connect analytical results to reusable public resources.
The programme supports district-scale fire-regime studies, comparison of MODIS and VIIRS observations and ongoing development of a national wildfire-susceptibility framework.
- 2001–2024
- Full monthly panel period
- 260
- Harmonised districts
- 5
- Agro-climatic zones
- 30 m
- Ongoing susceptibility-grid resolution
Why this research matters
Fire is not one uniform phenomenon
Ghana’s fire patterns vary through time, across ecological contexts and between districts. Satellite products also observe different aspects of fire. Treating those signals as equivalent can obscure meaningful variation.
Practical need
Transparent district evidence can support research, environmental monitoring and fire-management planning, provided users understand the limits of satellite observations and aggregated statistics.
Study area
Nested national, zone and district reporting
The programme uses 260 harmonised districts assigned to five agro-climatic zones by greatest spatial overlap. National summaries provide the broad view; zones provide ecological context; districts expose local heterogeneity.
| Agro-climatic zone | Code | Harmonised districts | Analytical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sudan Savannah | SS | 20 | Northern dryland context |
| Guinea Savannah | GS | 45 | Broad savannah fire context |
| Transition | TZ | 27 | Forest–savannah transition context |
| Forest | FZ | 110 | Forest-zone context |
| Coastal | CZ | 58 | Coastal and urbanising context |
| Total | 260 | National district framework | |
Evidence and status
What is published, released, under review and ongoing
Forest-fire drivers in Mole National Park
A peer-reviewed geospatial study of fire records, burned area and potential climatic and anthropogenic drivers in Mole National Park.
Open the published article in a new tabRegional assessment of wildfires in West Africa
A contributing paper to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2019, published by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Open the UNDRR record in a new tabGhana monthly fire panels
District and agro-climatic-zone monthly datasets for 2001–2024, accompanied by audit, manifest and merge-integrity files.
Open the Figshare dataset in a new tabDistrict-scale MODIS–VIIRS mismatch study
The analysis is complete and the manuscript is under peer review. It is not counted as a publication, and its provisional numerical findings are not presented here as established evidence.
National 30 m wildfire-susceptibility framework
Current work is developing a leakage-aware, explainable and calibrated modelling framework with district and agro-climatic-zone reporting. Results will be published only after validation.
Validated operational research products
Future outputs will focus on clear spatial reporting, reproducible release packages and communication suitable for research and planning contexts.
Principal observations
Different satellite products answer different questions
MODIS burned area
Monthly burned-area measures describe mapped fire impact: where the land surface was detected as burned and how much area was affected.
MODIS active fire
Thermal detections provide a longer-run activity signal and support comparison with burned-area observations.
VIIRS active fire
Higher-resolution thermal detections provide overlap-era activity information. They are analysed within their validated support window rather than backfilled with zeros.
Interpretation rule: burned area measures fire impact, while active-fire detections measure observed thermal activity. The products are related, but their raw values are not interchangeable and are not simply added together.
Research resources
Explore the programme
MethodologySpatial harmonisation, temporal support, sensor roles and analytical methods.
Data and provenancePanel dimensions, source roles, audit results, licence and repository access.
Open the interactive Observatory v1.0.0Explore seven analytical views, district profiles, sensor comparison, data quality and the glossary in a new tab.
Download the public datasetOpen the authoritative Figshare record in a new tab.
Responsible use
The Ghana Fire Observatory is a research and analytical resource. It is not an emergency-warning or incident-response service. For active emergencies, consult the relevant public authorities. Research outputs should be interpreted with the documented spatial, temporal and sensor limitations.