Using long time series of Landsat data to monitor fire events and post-fire dynamics and identify driving factors. A case study in the Ayora region (eastern Spain)

• Published in: Remote sensing of environment 2008-01, Vol.112 (1), p.259-273
• Main Authors: Röder, Achim, Hill, Joachim, Duguy, Beatriz, Alloza, José Antonio, Vallejo, Ramon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied geophysics; Biological and medical sciences; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Exact sciences and technology; Fire mapping; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; Internal geophysics; Landsat; Pollution, environment geology; Post-fire dynamics; Radiometric processing; Spectral mixture analysis; Teledetection and vegetation maps; Trend analysis
• ISSN: 0034-4257; 1879-0704
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2007.05.001

The Ayora region, situated about 60 km southwest of the city of Valencia/Spain, was chosen to demonstrate pathways of characterizing fire events and post-fire succession in Mediterranean ecosystems using multi-temporal satellite imagery. A corresponding time series of 6 Landsat MSS, 13 Landsat-5 TM and 1 Landsat-7 ETM + images, covering the period 1975—2000, was processed to account for geometric and radiometric distortions as well as sensor calibration. Spectral Mixture Analysis was applied to derive estimates of photosynthetic active green vegetation cover as a primary indicator. A combination of pixel-based linear trend analysis and diachronic thresholding was employed to procure a fire perimeter data base and characterize post-fire dynamics based on a temporally stratified trend analysis. The results were integrated with auxiliary information to evaluate driving factors and further interpreted in relation to field-based information on plant communities and post-fire succession patterns. Reflecting typical recovery phases with an initial establishment of grasses and herbaceous species, followed by a gradual development of a shrub layer and the subsequent colonization of tree individuals, temporal trajectories could be described by exponential functions and were related to plot-based botanical information.