Abstract
The devastating series of fire events that occurred during the summers of 2007 and 2009 in Greece made evident the need for an operational mechanism to map burned areas in an accurate and timely fashion to be developed. In this work, Système pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT)-4 HRVIR images are introduced in an object-based classification environment in order to develop a classification procedure for burned area mapping. The development of the procedure was based on two images and then tested for its transferability to other burned areas. Results from the SPOT-4 HRVIR burned area mapping showed very high classification accuracies ( 0.86 kappa coefficient), while the object-based classification procedure that was developed proved to be transferable when applied to other study areas.
Highlights
Accurate information relating to the impact of fire on the environment is a key factor in the following activities: quantifying the impact of fires on landscapes [1]; selecting and prioritizing treatments applied on site [2]; planning and monitoring restoration and recovery activities [3,4]; and providing baseline information for future monitoring [5]
Given the extremely broad spatial expanse and often limited accessibility of the areas affected by forest fire, satellite remote sensing is an essential technology for gathering post-fire-related information in a cost-effective and time-saving
The methodology involved pre-processing of the Système pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT)-4 HRVIR images, development of the object-based classification procedure, and subsequently, examination of the transferability of the developed procedure
Summary
Accurate information relating to the impact of fire on the environment is a key factor in the following activities: quantifying the impact of fires on landscapes [1]; selecting and prioritizing treatments applied on site [2]; planning and monitoring restoration and recovery activities [3,4]; and providing baseline information for future monitoring [5]. Given the extremely broad spatial expanse and often limited accessibility of the areas affected by forest fire, satellite remote sensing is an essential technology for gathering post-fire-related information in a cost-effective and time-saving. The increasing trend in the occurrence of fire events has underlined the need for the development of a reliable procedure in order to map burned areas accurately and rapidly. The ability of such a procedure to assess the impact of fire on the environment in a timely and accurate fashion would make it applicable in other areas, such as the United Nations’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (UN-REDD) collaborative program initiative. UN-REDD requires an understanding of the process of fire in forest systems and the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions due to vegetation fires [9]
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