Forest fire damage assessment using Object Based Image Analysis

Abstract

In recent years, developments in satellite and sensor technology brought new technologies for the assessment of the information obtained through these new sensors. One of these technologies is the Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) technology which allows you to make various queries on the high resolution satellite or aerial images. In this work, a damage assessment have been conducted by using object based image analysis method on a high resolution aerial image taken after a forest fire. The eCognition software which provides the object based image analysis opportunities is used in the work and the results revealed that how this software can make such flexible queries. It is possible to make various analysis on the classes obtained by the pixel based segmentation process. In this study, a small part of a large area of a high resolution aerial image is subjected to an object based analysis through the eCognition software and the size of the fire damaged area was uncovered. The analysis of the whole fire area can be obtained after applying the rule base, acquired from this process, on the whole image.