Satellite monitoring of wildfire impacts on the conditions of various types of vegetation cover in the federal districts of the Russian Federation

Abstract

Here we present the results of the analysis of multi-year satellite data series collected by Terra/Aqua (6 collections of MCD64A1 “Burned Area” monthly product) and Landsat satellites to assess the dynamics of vegetation affected by wildfires for the whole territory of Russia and its regions. An approach to use remote sensing and geoinformatic methods to monitor wildfire impacts on the conditions of various types of vegetation without involving in-situ data has been suggested. The capability to apply the normalized burned area index for the assessment of vegetation damage degree and recovering character using low-resolution satellite data has been demonstrated. It was established that between 2002 and 2017, 68.40 to 234.46 thousand km2 of vegetation cover had been burned out in Russia annually. Seasonal peaks of fire activity, laws of spatial distribution of fire sites, and main types of burned out vegetation for each of 8 Russian federal districts have been revealed. The accuracy of determination of burned out areas based on low-resolution (500 m) data using mid-resolution (30 m) data was 75–81% depending on the used data product.