Abstract
This study focuses on the July-August 2019 eruption-induced wildfires at the Stromboli island (Italy). The analysis of land cover (LC) and land use (LU) changes has been crucial to describe the environmental impacts concerning endemic vegetation loss, damages to agricultural heritage, and transformations to landscape patterns. Moreover, a survey was useful to collect eyewitness accounts aimed to define the LU and to obtain detailed information about eruption-induced damages. Detection of burnt areas was based on PLÉIADES-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, and field surveys. Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Relativized Burn Ratio (RBR) allowed mapping areas impacted by fires. LC and LU classification involved the detection of new classes, following the environmental units of landscape, being the result of the intersection between CORINE Land Cover project (CLC) and local landscape patterns. The results of multi-temporal comparison show that fire-damaged areas amount to 39% of the total area of the island, mainly affecting agricultural and semi-natural vegetated areas, being composed by endemic Aeolian species and abandoned olive trees that were cultivated by exploiting terraces up to high altitudes. LC and LU analysis has shown the strong correlation between land use management, wildfire severity, and eruption-induced damages on the island.
Highlights
Explosive eruptions can severely disrupt the environment around volcanoes by depositing large volumes of erodible fragmental material or inducing wildfires on vegetated volcano slopes [1]
This study focuses on the July-August 2019 eruption-induced wildfires at the Stromboli island (Italy)
Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Relativized Burn Ratio (RBR) allowed mapping areas impacted by fires
Summary
Explosive eruptions can severely disrupt the environment around volcanoes by depositing large volumes of erodible fragmental material or inducing wildfires on vegetated volcano slopes [1]. Explosions-induced wildfires at Stromboli are common phenomena related to the fallout of incandescent material on dry vegetation. There is only limited documentation of environmental disturbance due to wildfire triggered by volcanic eruptions [2]. The environmental impact on the volcanic island of Stromboli (Italy) of the 3 July 2019 and 28 August 2019 strong explosions (locally called Strombolian paroxysms [3]) have been described, in terms of wildfire severity and changes in the land cover (LC) and land use (LU). Multi-temporal data allowed mapping the LC and LU at Stromboli before the 2019 eruptions, as well as the areas impacted by wildfires triggered by the explosions.
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