Abstract
Wild-land fires are a dynamic and destructive force in natural ecosystems. In recent decades, fire disturbances have increased concerns and awareness over significant economic loss and landscape change. The focus of this research was to study two northern California wild-land fires: Butte Humboldt Complex and Butte Lightning Complex of 2008 and assessment of vegetation recovery after the fires via ground based measurements and utilization of Landsat 5 imagery and analysis software to assess landscape change. Multi-temporal and burn severity dynamics and assessment through satellite imagery were used to visually ascertain levels of landscape change, under two temporal scales. Visual interpretation indicated noticeable levels of landscape change and relevant insight into the magnitude and impact of both wild-land fires. Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and delta NBR (DNBR) data allowed for quantitative analysis of burn severity levels. DNBR results indicate low severity and low re-growth for Butte Humboldt Complex “burned center” subplots. In contrast, DNBR values for Butte Lightning Complex “burned center” subplots indicated low-moderate burn severity levels.
Highlights
In June 2008, two wild-land fires consumed large areas in rural Butte County, California, USA
On June 11, the Butte Humboldt Complex (BHC) fire broke out and spread rapidly to over 23,344 acres causing the destruction of 87 homes, ten injuries, and 20.5 million dollars in damages [1]
Located in the eastern foothill regions of Chico, CA spanning towards Paradise, CA, ten 30 by 30 meter subplots were designated in Butte Humboldt Complex fire affected areas (Table 1, Figure 1)
Summary
In June 2008, two wild-land fires consumed large areas in rural Butte County, California, USA. On June 11, the Butte Humboldt Complex (BHC) fire broke out and spread rapidly to over 23,344 acres causing the destruction of 87 homes, ten injuries, and 20.5 million dollars in damages [1]. On June 21, the Butte Lightning Complex (BLC) ignited and quickly spread to over 59,440 acres, causing the destruction of 106 homes, 71 injuries, and 85.3 million dollars in damages [1]. Fire regime measurements of severity, frequency and vegetation recovery, are all directly related to fire impact, in both environmental and economic terms. These are complex and dynamic systems with factors including but not limited to climate, local weather, fuel loading and encompass scales from regional to global [2,3,4]. Complicated fire regimes are to study and quantify there does seem to be one universal and coherent view; fires are and will continue to become more severe and frequent under future global climate projections [2,3,4,5,6,7]
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