Deep Learning Based Wildfire Detection for Peatland Fires Using Transfer Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Hamdan, Emadeldeen, Tharima, Ahmad Faiz, Tohir, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd, Musa, Dayang Nur Sakinah, Koyuncu, Erdem, Watts, Adam J., Cetin, Ahmet Enis
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Hamdan, Emadeldeen
Tharima, Ahmad Faiz
Tohir, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd
Musa, Dayang Nur Sakinah
Koyuncu, Erdem
Watts, Adam J.
Cetin, Ahmet Enis
author_facet Hamdan, Emadeldeen
Tharima, Ahmad Faiz
Tohir, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd
Musa, Dayang Nur Sakinah
Koyuncu, Erdem
Watts, Adam J.
Cetin, Ahmet Enis
contents Machine learning (ML)-based wildfire detection methods have been developed in recent years, primarily using deep learning (DL) models trained on large collections of wildfire images and videos. However, peatland fires exhibit distinct visual and physical characteristics -- such as smoldering combustion, low flame intensity, persistent smoke, and subsurface burning -- that limit the effectiveness of conventional wildfire detectors trained on open-flame forest fires. In this work, we present a transfer learning-based approach for peatland fire detection that leverages knowledge learned from general wildfire imagery and adapts it to the peatland fire domain. We initialize a DL-based peatland fire detector using pretrained weights from a conventional wildfire detection model and subsequently fine-tune the network using a dataset composed of Malaysian peatland images and videos. This strategy enables effective learning despite the limited availability of labeled peatland fire data. Experimental results demonstrate that transfer learning significantly improves detection accuracy and robustness compared to training from scratch, particularly under challenging conditions such as low-contrast smoke, partial occlusions, and variable illumination. The proposed approach provides a practical and scalable solution for early peatland fire detection and has the potential to support real-time monitoring systems for fire prevention and environmental protection.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_02465
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Deep Learning Based Wildfire Detection for Peatland Fires Using Transfer Learning
Hamdan, Emadeldeen
Tharima, Ahmad Faiz
Tohir, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd
Musa, Dayang Nur Sakinah
Koyuncu, Erdem
Watts, Adam J.
Cetin, Ahmet Enis
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
Machine learning (ML)-based wildfire detection methods have been developed in recent years, primarily using deep learning (DL) models trained on large collections of wildfire images and videos. However, peatland fires exhibit distinct visual and physical characteristics -- such as smoldering combustion, low flame intensity, persistent smoke, and subsurface burning -- that limit the effectiveness of conventional wildfire detectors trained on open-flame forest fires. In this work, we present a transfer learning-based approach for peatland fire detection that leverages knowledge learned from general wildfire imagery and adapts it to the peatland fire domain. We initialize a DL-based peatland fire detector using pretrained weights from a conventional wildfire detection model and subsequently fine-tune the network using a dataset composed of Malaysian peatland images and videos. This strategy enables effective learning despite the limited availability of labeled peatland fire data. Experimental results demonstrate that transfer learning significantly improves detection accuracy and robustness compared to training from scratch, particularly under challenging conditions such as low-contrast smoke, partial occlusions, and variable illumination. The proposed approach provides a practical and scalable solution for early peatland fire detection and has the potential to support real-time monitoring systems for fire prevention and environmental protection.
title Deep Learning Based Wildfire Detection for Peatland Fires Using Transfer Learning
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02465