Appraisal of fire damage and inventory for timber salvage by remote sensing in mountain ash forests in Victoria

Abstract

Summary In 1983 the most severe fire in Victorian mountain forests for over forty years killed extensive areas of highly productive eucalypt forest, requiring a large scale timber salvage and forest rehabilitation program. The scheduling of these programs was dependent upon a rapid and reliable assessment of the extent and severity of damage. Damage assessment, initiated immediately following the fire, utilised five distinct but complementary phases of remote sensing, namely airborne infrared scanning, conventional colour aerial photography from both large and small format cameras and Landsat imagery in pictorial and digital forms. The paper describes how this combination of remote sensing media offered a practical and successful solution to the problem of providing accurate and timely resources data for planning purposes.