Abstract
This study presents an individual tree-crown-based approach for canopy fuel load estimation and mapping in two Mediterranean pine stands. Based on destructive sampling, an allometric equation was developed for the estimation of crown fuel weight considering only pine crown width, a tree characteristic that can be estimated from passive imagery. Two high resolution images were used originally for discriminating Aleppo and Calabrian pines crown regions through a geographic object based image analysis approach. Subsequently, the crown region images were segmented using a watershed segmentation algorithm and crown width was extracted. The overall accuracy of the tree crown isolation expressed through a perfect match between the reference and the delineated crowns was 34.00% for the Kassandra site and 48.11% for the Thessaloniki site, while the coefficient of determination between the ground measured and the satellite extracted crown width was 0.5. Canopy fuel load values estimated in the current study presented mean values from 1.29 ± 0.6 to 1.65 ± 0.7 kg/m2 similar to other conifers worldwide. Despite the modest accuracies attained in this first study of individual tree crown fuel load mapping, the combination of the allometric equations with satellite-based extracted crown width information, can contribute to the spatially explicit mapping of canopy fuel load in Mediterranean areas. These maps can be used among others in fire behavior prediction, in fuel reduction treatments prioritization and during active fire suppression.
Highlights
Mediterranean landscapes have long been subjected to wildfires, and burning has become part of their dynamic natural equilibrium [1]
Despite the modest accuracies attained in this first study of individual tree crown fuel load mapping, the Remote Sens. 2013, 5 combination of the allometric equations with satellite-based extracted crown width information, can contribute to the spatially explicit mapping of canopy fuel load in Mediterranean areas
Through field destructive sampling of representative trees, we developed an allometric equation for crown fuel load estimation of Aleppo pine based on crown width, while an existing empirical model was used for the Calabrian pine trees
Summary
Mediterranean landscapes have long been subjected to wildfires, and burning has become part of their dynamic natural equilibrium [1]. Mediterranean fuels are distinctly different from other fuel complexes worldwide in terms of fuel load (fuel weight per unit area), creating conditions of extreme fuel hazard [4]. Mill.) and Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) forests in southern Europe are extremely prone to crown fires and represent about one-third of the total burned area in the Mediterranean Basin [5]. The broadleaved evergreen shrub understory (known as “maquis”) below the live canopy fuel complex creates ladder fuels that facilitate fire transition from the forest floor to the canopy layer. In Greece alone, the Aleppo and Calabrian pine forests represent 23% of the total burned area [6]
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