Land surface temperature as potential indicator of burn severity in forest Mediterranean ecosystems

QUINTANO C., FERNÁNDEZ A., CALVO L., MARCOS E., VALBUENA L. (2015) - Land surface temperature as potential indicator of burn severity in forest Mediterranean ecosystems - International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation

tForest fires are one of the most important causes of environmental alteration in Mediterranean countries.Discrimination of different degrees of burn severity is critical for improving management of fire-affectedareas. This paper aims to evaluate the usefulness of land surface temperature (LST) as potential indicatorof burn severity. We used a large convention-dominated wildfire, which occurred on 19–21 September,2012 in Northwestern Spain. From this area, a 1-year series of six LST images were generated from Landsat7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data using a single channel algorithm. Further, the Composite BurnIndex (CBI) was measured in 111 field plots to identify the burn severity level (low, moderate, and high).Evaluation of the potential relationship between post-fire LST and ground measured CBI was performedby both correlation analysis and regression models. Correlation coefficients were higher in the immediatepost-fire LST images, but decreased during the fall of 2012 and increased again with a second maximumvalue in summer, 2013. A linear regression model between post-fire LST and CBI allowed us to representspatially predicted CBI (R-squaredadj> 85%). After performing an analysis of variance (ANOVA) betweenpost-fire LST and CBI, a Fisher’s least significant difference test determined that two burn severity levels(low-moderate and high) could be statistically distinguished. The identification of such burn severitylevels is sufficient and useful to forest managers. We conclude that summer post-fire LST from moderateresolution satellite data may be considered as a valuable indicator of burn severity for large fires inMediterranean forest ecosytems

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SCI: 

SI

Tipo de Publicación: 

Artículos

ISSN: 

0303-2434

Volumen: 

36

Página Inicial: 

1

Página Final: 

12