Forest fire management, funding dynamics, and research in the burning frontier: A comprehensive review

We indexed 8,970 scientific publications on forest fires in order to bridge the gap between research and policy discussions on forest fires. Journal articles and conference papers dominated the literature, with an emphasis on environmental science, agricultural and biological sciences, earth and planetary sciences, engineering, and computer science. Research in the field of fire has historically focused on terms such as "Forest Fire”, “Wildfire", and “Deforestation", but recent trends have highlighted terms such as "MODIS," "Artificial Intelligence," "Algorithm," "Satellite Data," and "Prediction". The number of publications has steadily risen, particularly after year 2000, with funding predominantly from the National Science Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation, U.S. Forest Service, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Notable scientific contributions observed from the United States, China, Canada, Spain, Australia, and India. The International Journal of Wildland Fire had the maximum share in published articles among scientific journals, followed by Forest Ecology and Management, Forests, Science of The Total Environment, and Remote Sensing. A variety of aspects of forest fire research have been covered, such as data-driven studies, new discoveries, methodological advances, theoretical applications, and policy implications. In spite of our long interrelation with fires, we are lacking a comprehensive mechanism to combat them effectively. A multidisciplinary approach to the collection and analysis of forest fire information could provide an insightful tool for evidence-based policies and practices aimed to address emerging environmental challenges due to forest fire at global scale.