Factors influencing the formation of unburned forest islands within the perimeter of a large forest fire

Román-Cuesta, Rosa María; Gracia, Marc; Retana, Javier

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2009.03.041

Cited by 69 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Unburned patches within a fire polygon are common [17,55,56] and can significantly alter the differential reflectance at 1 km resolution so that small unburned patches at 30 m resolution can be also considered as unburned at 1 km resolution. When comparing the most used global BA products, all products have been acknowledged to underestimate burned-area and that an increase in pixel size or burned patch elongation, results in larger estimation errors [48].…”

Section: Uncertain Boundaries and Patch Size Underestimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can We Go Beyond Burned Area in the Assessment of Global Remote Sensing Products with Fire Patch Metrics?

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Global burned area (BA) datasets from satellite Earth observations provide information for carbon emission and for Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (DGVM) benchmarking. Fire patch identification from pixel-level information recently emerged as an additional way of providing informative features about fire regimes through the analysis of patch size distribution. We evaluated the ability of global BA products to accurately represent morphological features of fire patches, in the fire-prone Brazilian savannas. We used the pixel-level burned area from LANDSAT images, as well as two global products: MODIS MCD45A1 and the European Space Agency (ESA) fire Climate Change Initiative (FIRE_CCI) product for the 2002-2009 time period. Individual fire patches were compared by linear regressions to test the consistency of global products as a source of burned patch shape information. Despite commission and omission errors respectively reaching 0.74 and 0.81 for ESA FIRE_CCI and 0.64 and 0.62 for MCD45A1 when compared to LANDSAT due to missing small fires, correlations between patch areas showed R 2 > 0.6 for all comparisons, with a slope of 0.99 between ESA FIRE_CCI and MCD45A1 but a lower slope (0.6-0.8) when compared to the LANDSAT data. Shape complexity between global products was less correlated (R 2 = 0.5) with lower values (R 2 = 0.2) between global products and LANDSAT data, due to their coarser resolution. For the morphological features of the ellipse fitted over fire patches, R 2 reached 0.6 for the ellipse's eccentricity and varied from 0.4 to 0.8 for its azimuthal directional angle. We conclude that global BA products underestimate total BA as they miss small fires, but they also underestimate burned patch areas. Patch complexity is the least correlated variable, but ellipse features appear to provide information to be further used for quality product assessment, global pyrogeography or DGVM benchmarking.

show abstract

Section: Uncertain Boundaries and Patch Size Underestimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can We Go Beyond Burned Area in the Assessment of Global Remote Sensing Products with Fire Patch Metrics?

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Empirical studies generally indicate mitigation of fire behavior or fire severity in more mature stands [16,17] and in deciduous broadleaved forest [18][19][20][21][22] and short-needled conifers [22] in comparison with pine forests. Modification of fire behavior characteristics is expected to disturb or disrupt landscape fire growth, directly, by delaying or impeding fire spread and, indirectly, by allowing successful fire suppression operations, hence, translating into less area burned and differential burning rates among vegetation types.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microclimate and Modeled Fire Behavior Differ Between Adjacent Forest Types in Northern Portugal

Pinto

Fernandes

2014

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fire severity varies with forest composition and structure, reflecting micrometeorology and the fuel complex, but their respective influences are difficult to untangle from observation alone. We quantify the differences in fire weather between different forest types and the resulting differences in modeled fire behavior. Collection of in-stand weather data proceeded during two summer periods in three adjacent stands in northern Portugal, respectively Pinus pinaster (PP), Betula alba (BA), and Chamaecyparis lawsoniana (CL). Air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed varied respectively as CL < PP < BA, PP < CL < BA, and CL < BA < PP. Differences between PP and the other types were greatest during the warmest and driest hours of the day in a sequence of 10 days with high fire danger. Estimates of daytime moisture content of fine dead fuels and fire behavior characteristics for this period, respectively, from Behave and BehavePlus, indicate a CL < BA < PP gradient in fire potential. High stand density in CL and BA ensured lower wind speed and higher fuel moisture content than in PP, limiting the likelihood of an extreme fire environment. However, regression tree analysis revealed that the fire behavior distinction between the three forest types was primarily a function of the surface fuel complex, and more so during extreme fire weather conditions. OPEN ACCESSForests 2014, 5 2491

show abstract

“…These characterizations have allowed for a number of analyses investigating factors influencing fire severity both within individual fires (Finney et al 2005, Román-Cuesta et al 2009, Prichard et al 2010) and among numerous fires within particular regions (Holden et al 2007, Miller et al 2009b, Miller et al 2012, van Wagtendonk et al 2012. Additionally, fire extent and severity data have been used to compare fire patterns among regions (Dillon et al 2011) and forest types (Miller et al 2009b, Miller et al 2012.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in wildfires among ecoregions and land management agencies in the Sierra Nevada region, California, USA

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Recent research has indicated that in most of the western United States, fire size is increasing, large fires are becoming more frequent, and in at least some locations percentage of high-severity fire is also increasing. These changes in the contemporary fire regime are largely attributed to both changing climate and land management practices, including suppression of fires and past timber harvesting, over the last century. Fire management, including suppression and using wildfire for resource benefits, varies among federal land management agencies, yet no published studies have directly compared fire statistics between federal land management agencies in our study area. The primary response to wildfire on Forest Service areas is immediate suppression, while the National Park Service is more likely to use wildfire for resource benefits. We use fire perimeters and satellite-derived estimates of fire severity to compare fire statistics for wildfires (fire size, percentage of high-severity fire and high-severity patch size) among ecoregions, forest types, and land management agencies 1984-2009 in the Sierra Nevada, Southern Cascades, and Modoc Plateau of California, USA. High-severity patch size and percentage of high-severity fire, regardless of forest type, were less (P , 0.05) in Yosemite National Park than on Forest Service lands. Yosemite fires were smaller on average than fires on Forest Service lands on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, southern Cascades and Modoc Plateau. Depending upon whether fires that crossed boundaries were included or not, mean size of Yosemite fires was either smaller or not significantly different from Forest Service fires on the west side of the Sierra Nevada. Even under current conditions, it appears that fire management practices that emulate those used in Yosemite could moderate effects of past land management, restoring and helping to maintain old forest conditions within the greater Sierra Nevada region, including the southern Cascades and Modoc Plateau.

show abstract

Factors influencing the formation of unburned forest islands within the perimeter of a large forest fire

Cited by 69 publications

References 63 publications

Can We Go Beyond Burned Area in the Assessment of Global Remote Sensing Products with Fire Patch Metrics?

Can We Go Beyond Burned Area in the Assessment of Global Remote Sensing Products with Fire Patch Metrics?

Microclimate and Modeled Fire Behavior Differ Between Adjacent Forest Types in Northern Portugal

Differences in wildfires among ecoregions and land management agencies in the Sierra Nevada region, California, USA

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About