Fuel-Specific Aggregation of Active Fire Detections for Rapid Mapping of Forest Fire Perimeters in Mexico

Context and Background. Active fires have the potential to provide early estimates of fire perimeters, but there is a lack of information about the best active fire aggregation distances and how they can vary between fuel types, particularly in large areas of study under diverse climatic conditions....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests 2022-01, Vol.13 (1), p.124
Main Authors: Briones-Herrera, Carlos Ivan, Vega-Nieva, Daniel José, Briseño-Reyes, Jaime, Monjarás-Vega, Norma Angélica, López-Serrano, Pablito Marcelo, Corral-Rivas, José Javier, Alvarado, Ernesto, Arellano-Pérez, Stéfano, Jardel Peláez, Enrique J., Pérez Salicrup, Diego Rafael, Jolly, William Matthew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agglomeration
Arid regions
Arid zones
Assessments
burned area
Climatic conditions
Estimates
fire monitoring
Fire prevention
Forest & brush fires
Forest fires
forest fuels
Fuels
Grasslands
hotspots
Humid climates
Latency
Mapping
MODIS
Shrubs
VIIRS
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Summary:Context and Background. Active fires have the potential to provide early estimates of fire perimeters, but there is a lack of information about the best active fire aggregation distances and how they can vary between fuel types, particularly in large areas of study under diverse climatic conditions. Objectives. The current study aimed at analyzing the effect of aggregation distances for mapping fire perimeters from active fires for contrasting fuel types and regions in Mexico. Materials and Methods. Detections of MODIS and VIIRS active fires from the period 2012–2018 were used to obtain perimeters of aggregated active fires (AGAF) at four aggregation distances (750, 1000, 1125, and 1500 m). AGAF perimeters were compared against MODIS MCD64A1 burned area for a total of 24 fuel types and regions covering all the forest area of Mexico. Results/findings. Optimum aggregation distances varied between fuel types and regions, with the longest aggregation distances observed for the most arid regions and fuel types dominated by shrubs and grasslands. Lowest aggregation distances were obtained in the regions and fuel types with the densest forest canopy and more humid climate. Purpose/Novelty. To our best knowledge, this study is the first to analyze the effect of fuel type on the optimum aggregation distance for mapping fire perimeters directly from aggregated active fires. The methodology presented here can be used operationally in Mexico and elsewhere, by accounting for fuel-specific aggregation distances, for improving rapid estimates of fire perimeters. These early fire perimeters could be potentially available in near-real time (at every satellite pass with a 12 h latency) in operational fire monitoring GIS systems to support rapid assessment of fire progression and fire suppression planning.
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f13010124