Evaluation of forest fire on Madeira Island using Sentinel-2A MSI imagery
•First attempt to analyse Madeira fires with Sentinel-2 MSI sensor.•Atmospheric correction was performed using Sen2cor library.•Vegetation spectral indices were evaluated to estimate burnt areas.•Red-edge spectral index using B5 performed best to estimate burnt areas.•Continuous post-fire monitoring...
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Published in | International journal of applied earth observation and geoinformation Vol. 58; pp. 97 - 106 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Elsevier B.V
01.06.2017
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | •First attempt to analyse Madeira fires with Sentinel-2 MSI sensor.•Atmospheric correction was performed using Sen2cor library.•Vegetation spectral indices were evaluated to estimate burnt areas.•Red-edge spectral index using B5 performed best to estimate burnt areas.•Continuous post-fire monitoring could be achieved using twin Sentinel-2 satellites.
A forest fire started on August 8th, 2016 in several places on Madeira Island causing damage and casualties. As of August 10th the local media had reported the death of three people, over 200 people injured, over 950 habitants evacuated, and 50 houses damaged. This study presents the preliminary results of the assessment of several spectral indices to evaluate the burn severity of Madeira fires during August 2016. These spectral indices were calculated using the new European satellite Sentinel-2A launched in June 2015. The study confirmed the advantages of several spectral indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVIreXn) using red-edge spectral bands to assess the post-fire conditions. Results showed high correlation between NDVI, GNDVI, NBR and NDVIre1n spectral indices and the analysis performed by Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMSR175), considered as the reference truth. Regarding the red-edge spectral indices, the NDVIre1n (using band B5, 705nm) presented better results compared with B6 (740nm) and B7 (783nm) bands. These preliminary results allow us to assume that Sentinel-2 will be a valuable tool for post-fire monitoring. In the future, the two twin Sentinel-2 satellites will offer global coverage of the Madeira Archipelago every five days, therefore allowing the simultaneous study of the evolution of the burnt area and reforestation information with high spatial (up to 10m) and temporal resolution (5days). |
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ISSN: | 1569-8432 1872-826X |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.jag.2017.02.003 |