Remote Sensing of Large Wildfires: in the European Mediterranean Basin

by Emilio Chuvieco (Editor)

Overview

Forest fIres are considered a major environmental problem in many European Union Member States as well as in other parts of the world. According to a recent report of the European Commission, forest fues are a dominant feature of the landscapes of the fIve Southern European Member States - Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece, and almost a half of the Community's forests have been classed as fue-risk areas. Protection from forest fues is an interdisciplinary endeavour, which needs to be addressed from both the technological and methodological point of view, and which necessitates a wide spectrum of various scientifIc disciplines. It also implies the solution of numerous practical problems (both of a generic nature and of a specifIc one) and the consideration of the characteristics of the specifIc areas in which fue fIghting is carried out. ScientifIc research is offering a major contribution to forest fIre fIghting. The European Commission (DG XII, Directorate General for Science, Research and Development) has supported since the 1980s a number of multinational research projects through its successive RTD programmes in the fIeld of the Environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642642845
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	01/23/2014
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1999
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- 2 The role of fire In European Mediterranean ecosystems.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Fire history.- 2.3 Fire effects on soils.- 2.4 Post-fire regeneration of vegetation.- 2.5 Concluding remarks.- 3Short-term fire risk: foliage moisture content estimation from satellite data.- 3.1 The role of foliage moisture content in the short-term estimation of fire danger.- 3.2 The estimation of foliage moisture content.- 3.3 The effect of moisture content on reflectance and temperature.- 3.4 The use of low resolution data for foliage moisture estimation.- 3.5 Application of NOAA-AVHRR to FMC estimation.- 3.6 Foliage moisture assessment using high resolution data.- 4 Meteorological fire danger indices and remote sensing.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Processes and components embodied in fire danger indices.- 4.3 Meteorological fire danger indices.- 4.4 Large fire danger rating with meteorological indices in the European Mediterranean Basin.- 4.5 Satellite data and meteorological danger indices.- 5 Integrated fire risk mapping.- 5.1 Temporal and spatial scales in fire risk mapping.- 5.2 The use of GIS in fire risk assessment.- 5.3 Analysis of long-term fire risk on a European level.- 5.4 Examples of local-scale risk analysis.- 6 Fire detection and fire growth monitoring using satellite data.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Basis for fire detection from satellite data.- 6.3 General issues related to remote sensing of active fires.- 6.4 Active fire detection with NOAA-AVHRR images.- 6.5 Fire growth monitoring using AVHRR images.- 6.6 Future systems.- 6.7 Conclusions.- 7 Spectral characterisation and discrimination of burnt areas.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Spectral properties of burnt areas.- 7.3 Conclusions.- 8 Regional-scale burnt area mapping in southern Europe using NOAA-AVHRR 1km dataµ.- 8.1 Introduction µ.- 8.2 Methods for burnt land mapping.- 8.3 Mapping burnt areas in southeµrn Europe from NOAA-AVHRR data.- 8.4 Discussion and conclusions.- 9 Burnt land mapping at local scale.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Scale issues in burnt land mapping.- 9.3 Operational burnt land mapping in Mediterranean landscapes.- 9.4 Techniques for burnt land mapping.- 9.5 Discrimination of damage intensities.- 9.6 Epilogue.- References.