FIRE SEVERITY ASSESSMENT USING NDVI DERIVED FROM LANDSAT TM/ETM IMAGES AND TERRAIN DATA
The forest fires influence on the plants and soil depends on the fire severity and time of exposure. Fire severity integrates physical, chemical and biological changes occurring in ecosystems on the area as a consequence of fire influence. The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the role of the forest fire severity on the vegetation cover of the area of Svilengrad Municipality, using NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) before fire and after fire, derived from LANDSAT 8 TM/ETM images. The comparison of the data from NDVI and that observed on the terrain data was also targeted. The results show that NDVI are changed significantly in fire affected area depending on vegetation cover and type of fire. This index also is very sensitive to changes during time after fire occurrence. One year after fire occurrence the NDVI values increased to +0.305 (0.048) for whole studied area. Through dNDVI could be distinguish the recovery rates of the fire affected areas with different tree species.