How the land heals — in the hills behind Split, Croatia
14,097 hectares burned in the hills behind Split, Croatia — the fire started on July 31, 2017. Below, one satellite image per year — always in the same season — shows how the vegetation returns. The detailed day-by-day image series is on the
fire’s original case page van.
20172025
Year by year
2017-08-31
2017
What does this series show? The first image was taken right after the fire
(August 31, 2017) — the dark patch is the fresh burn scar. Each following image was taken once a year, on the clearest day around the anniversary — so the seasonal colors are comparable. Where the patch gradually turns green again, vegetation is recovering; where it stays pale or grey after years, recovery is slower. The images come from the Sentinel-2 satellites — 9 yearly images.