Designing a Multitemporal Analysis of Land Use Changes and Vegetation Indices to Assess the Impacts of Severe Forest Fires Before Applying Control Measures

Abstract

Forest fires represent a significant intersection between nature and society, often leading to the loss of natural resources, soil nutrients, and economic opportunities, as well as causing desertification and the displacement of communities. Therefore, the objective of this work is to analyze the multitemporal conditions of a sixth-generation forest fire through the use and implementation of tools such as remote sensing, photointerpretation with geographic information systems (GISs), thematic information on land use, and the use of spatial indices such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Normalized Burned Ratio (NBR), and its difference (dNBR) with satellite images from Sentinel-2. To improve our understanding of the dynamics and changes that occurred due to the devastating forest fire in Los Guájares, Granada, Spain, in September 2022, which affected 5194 hectares and had a perimeter of 150 km, we found that the main land use in the study area was forest, followed by agricultural areas which decreased from 1956 to 2003. We also observed the severity of burning, shown with the dNBR, reflecting moderate–low and moderate–high levels of severity. Health and part of the post-fire recovery process, as indicated by the NDVI, were also observed. This study provides valuable information on the spatial and temporal dimensions of forest fires, which will favor informed decision making and the development of effective prevention strategies.