Burn-scar patterns and their effect on regional burnt-area mapping in insular South-East Asia
Jukka Miettinen A C and Soo Chin Liew BA Department of Forest Resource Management, University of Helsinki, Latokartanonkaari 7 (PL27), 00014 Helsingin Yliopisto, Helsinki, Finland.
B Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP), National University of Singapore, Lower Kent Ridge Road, 119260 Singapore.
C Corresponding author. Email: crsjim@nus.edu.sg
International Journal of Wildland Fire 18(7) 837-847 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF08102
Submitted: 11 July 2008 Accepted: 24 February 2009 Published: 27 October 2009
Abstract
This study aimed to deepen understanding on the limits imposed by burn-scar patterns and size distribution on regional burnt-area mapping with medium to coarse resolution (250–1000 m) satellite imagery in insular South-East Asia. Burnt-area maps based on 16 high-resolution SPOT 4 HRVIR and 5 HRG images were analysed in combination with land-cover and soil maps. Although the number of small burn scars (<25ha) was high throughout the region, the proportion of total burnt-area found in small scars varied remarkably (from 3 to 97%) between study sites. Unlike land cover, soil type was found to be a good indicator for usability of medium to coarse-resolution burnt-area mapping owing to the high occurrence of large burn scars on peatland and other wetland areas. A medium-resolution burnt-area mapping simulation (where 500 × 500-m grid cells containing ≥50% burnt area were considered detectable) resulted in 86% detected burnt area in wetlands (peat and alluvial soils) as opposed to only 33% in non-wetland areas. We thereby conclude that burn scar patterns and size distribution permit reliable regional burnt-area mapping with medium to coarse-resolution satellite imagery in the wetlands of insular South-East Asia, whereas alternative methods may need to be used in non-wetland areas.
Additional keywords: fire, peatland fires.
Acknowledgements
This research was conducted at CRISP at the National University of Singapore. The first author thanks Helsingin Sanomain 100-vuotissäätiö for funding and CRISP for providing the research facility and the SPOT data used in this study. The second author acknowledges support from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) of Singapore.
Bartholome E , Belward AS (2005) GLC2000: a new approach to global land cover mapping from Earth observation data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 26, 1959–1977.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Bucini G , Lambin EF (2002) Fire impacts on vegetation in Central Africa: a remote-sensing-based statistical analysis. Applied Geography 22, 27–48.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Liew SC, Kwoh LK, Padmanabhan K, Lim OK , Lim H (1999) Delineating land/forest fire burnt scars with ERS interferometric synthetic aperture radar. Geophysical Research Letters 26, 2409–2412.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Sá ACL, Pereira JMC, Vasconcelos MJP, Silva JMN, Ribeiro N , Awasse A (2003) Assessing the feasibility of subpixel burned area mapping in miombo woodlands of Northern Mozambique using MODIS imagery. International Journal of Remote Sensing 24, 1783–1796.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Shabanov NV, Lo K, Gopal S , Myneni RB (2005) Subpixel burn detection in Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 500-m data with ARTMAP neural networks. Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres 110, D01105.
| Crossref |
Stibig H-J, Beuchle R , Achard F (2003b) Mapping of the tropical forest cover of insular South-East Asia from SPOT4-VEGETATION images. International Journal of Remote Sensing 24, 3651–3662.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
