Characterization of Fire Regime Descriptors in Botswana Using Remotely Sensed Data

2019 ◽  
pp. 1034-1048
Author(s):  
John Isaac Molefe
Keyword(s):  
Inverse Relationship ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Conditional Statements ◽  
Fire Information ◽  
Cluster Mapping

Despite its role and relevance in environmental management at all scales the use of fire has been contentious. The absence of information on fire parameters compounds the situation. This study derives fire parameter information for Botswana by analyzing MODIS fire data for (2001-2012), using conditional statements, and cluster mapping in ArcGIS. The study also related the fire information to other variables to examine how they interact with fire. The results of the study indicates that over the 12 year period the burned area has exhibited an upward trend. It has also shown that most of the fire in the country occur over the late dry season when the fires are potentially destructive. A south-north transect of fire frequency is observed, accompanied by an inverse relationship between frequency and intensity. Of all the factors, rainfall (0.638) and biomass(NDVI) (0.355) were the most significant contributors to the fire activity. The study demonstrated the utility of the MODIS fire data in characterizing the fire regime of the country and thus contribute to the policy process.

Characterization of Fire Regime Descriptors in Botswana Using Remotely Sensed Data

2018 ◽  
pp. 86-100
Author(s):  
John Isaac Molefe
Keyword(s):  
Inverse Relationship ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Conditional Statements ◽  
Fire Information ◽  
Cluster Mapping

Despite its role and relevance in environmental management at all scales the use of fire has been contentious. The absence of information on fire parameters compounds the situation. This study derives fire parameter information for Botswana by analyzing MODIS fire data for (2001-2012), using conditional statements, and cluster mapping in ArcGIS. The study also related the fire information to other variables to examine how they interact with fire. The results of the study indicates that over the 12 year period the burned area has exhibited an upward trend. It has also shown that most of the fire in the country occur over the late dry season when the fires are potentially destructive. A south-north transect of fire frequency is observed, accompanied by an inverse relationship between frequency and intensity. Of all the factors, rainfall (0.638) and biomass(NDVI) (0.355) were the most significant contributors to the fire activity. The study demonstrated the utility of the MODIS fire data in characterizing the fire regime of the country and thus contribute to the policy process.

Determinants of fire activity during the last 3500 yr at a wildland—urban interface, Alberta, Canada

2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma L. Davis ◽  
Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi ◽  
Amber Gall ◽  
Michael F.J. Pisaric ◽  
Jesse C. Vermaire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Historical Range

AbstractLong-term records of wildfires and their controlling factors are important sources of information for informing land management practices. Here, dendrochronology and lake sediment analyses are used to develop a 3500-yr fire and vegetation history for a montane forest in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. The tree-ring record (AD 1771-2012) indicates that this region historically experienced a mixed-severity fire regime, and that effective fire suppression excluded widespread fire events from the study area during the 20th century. A sediment core collected from Little Trefoil Lake, located near the Jasper townsite, is analyzed for subfossil pollen and macroscopic charcoal (>150 μm). When comparing the tree-ring record to the 3500-yr record of sediment-derived fire events, only high-severity fires are represented in the charcoal record. Comparisons between the charcoal record and historical climate and pollen data indicate that climate and vegetation composition have been important controls on the fire regime for most of the last 3500 yr. Although fire frequency is presently within the historical range of variability, the fire return interval of the last 150 yr is longer than expected given modern climate and vegetation conditions, indicating that humans have become the main control on fire activity around Little Trefoil Lake.

scholarly journals Conflict and Climate: Drivers of Fire Activity in Syria in the Twenty-First Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-135
Author(s):  
Maria Zubkova ◽  
Louis Giglio ◽  
Michael L. Humber ◽  
Joanne V. Hall ◽  
Evan Ellicott
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Natural Vegetation ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
High Soil Moisture ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Drastic Increase ◽  
Production Areas

Abstract It has been 10 years since the start of the Syrian uprisings. While relative stability is improving overall, a new disaster, wildfires, impacted an already food-insecure population by burning through key production areas, damaging crops, soil, and livestock and causing air quality to deteriorate. As observed with remotely sensed data, fire affected 4.8% of Syria in 2019, as compared with the average 0.2%, and most fires were observed within agricultural land in the northeast. Abnormal amounts of rainfall during the 2019 growing season and, consequently, high soil moisture explained about 62% of the drastic increase in the burned area extent. In contrast, in 2020, fires continued despite the average amount of rainfall. Extremely high temperature could partially explain a 10-fold increase in the extent of burned area in 2020 but only within forested regions in the northwest. We argue that the abrupt changes in Syria’s fire activity were driven by the complex interactions among conflict, migration, land use, and climate. On one side, the ongoing conflict leads to a drastic increase in the number of accidental and deliberate fires and reduced capacity for fire response. On the other side, years of insecurity, widespread displacement, and economic instability left no choice for locals other than exploiting fires to remove natural vegetation for expanding farming, logging, and charcoal trading. The loss of agricultural production and natural vegetation to fire can have serious implications for food security, soil property, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, which can further exacerbate the already unstable economy and make ongoing violence even more intense.

Inter- and intra-annual profiles of fire regimes in the managed forests of Canada and implications for resource sharing

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steen Magnussen ◽  
Stephen W. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Joint Distribution ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Regional Synchrony

Year-to-year variation in fire activity in Canada constitutes a key challenge for fire management agencies. Interagency sharing of fire management resources has been ongoing on regional, national and international scales in Canada for several decades to better cope with peaks in resource demand. Inherent stressors on these schemes determined by the fire regimes in constituent jurisdictions are not well known, nor described by averages. We developed a statistical framework to examine the likelihood of regional synchrony of peaks in fire activity at a timescale of 1 week. Year-to-year variations in important fire regime variables and 48 regions in Canada are quantified by a joint distribution and profiled at the Provincial or Territorial level. The fire regime variables capture the timing of the fire season, the average number of fires, area burned, and the timing and extent of annual maxima. The onset of the fire season was strongly correlated with latitude and longitude. Regional synchrony in the timing of the maximum burned area within fire seasons delineates opportunities for and limitations to sharing of fire suppression resources during periods of stress that were quantified in Monte Carlo simulations from the joint distribution.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal patterns of wildfires in the Niassa Reserve –Mozambique, using remote sensing data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eufrásio Nhongo ◽  
Denise Fontana ◽  
Laurindo Guasselli
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Ecosystem Change ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Active Fire

AbstractWildfires are among the biggest factors of ecosystem change. Knowledge of fire regime (fire frequency, severity, intensity, seasonality, and distribution pattern) is an important factor in wildfire management. This paper aims to analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of fires and burned areas in the Niassa Reserve between 2002-2015 using MODIS data, active fire product (MCD14ML) and burned area product (MCD64A1). For this, the annual and monthly frequencies, the trend of fires and the frequency by types of forest cover were statistically analyzed. For the analysis of the spatial dynamics of forest fires we used the Kernel density (Fixed Method). The results show a total of 20.449 forest fires and 171.067 km2 of burned areas in the period 2002-2015. Fire incidents were highest in 2015, while the largest burned areas were recorded in 2007. The relationship between increased fires and burned areas is not linear. There was a tendency for fires to increase, while for burnt areas there was stabilization. Forest fires start in May and end in December. August-October are the most frequent period, peaking in September. Fires occur predominantly in deciduous forests and mountain forests because of the type of vegetation and the amount of dry biomass. There is a monthly spatial dynamics of wildfires from east to west in the reserve. This behavior is dependent on vegetation cover type, fuel availability, and senescence.

Effect of repeated fires on land-cover change on peatland in southern Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, from 1973 to 2005

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Hoscilo ◽  
Susan E. Page ◽  
Kevin J. Tansey ◽  
John O. Rieley
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Woody Vegetation ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Swamp Forest ◽  
Peat Swamp Forest ◽  
Central Kalimantan ◽  
Peat Swamp

Fire plays an increasingly important role in deforestation and degradation of carbon-dense tropical peatlands in South-east Asia. In this study, analysis of a time-series of satellite images for the period 1973–2005 showed that repeated, extensive fires, following drainage and selective logging, played an important role in land-cover dynamics and forest loss in the peatlands of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A study of peatlands in the former Mega Rice Project area revealed a rising trend in the rate of deforestation and identified fire as the principal factor influencing subsequent vegetation succession. A step change in fire regime was identified, with an increase in burned area and fire frequency following peatland drainage. During the 23-year pre-Mega Rice Project period (1973–1996), peat swamp forest was the most extensive land-cover class and fires were of relatively limited extent, with very few repeated fires. During the 9-year post-Mega Rice Project period (1997–2005), there was a 72% fire-related loss in area of peat swamp forest, with most converted to non-woody vegetation, dominated by ferns or mosaics of trees and non-woody vegetation, rather than cultivated land.

scholarly journals A century of transformation: Fire regime transitions from 1919 to 2019 in southeastern British Columbia, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer N Baron ◽  
Sarah E. Gergel ◽  
Paul F. Hessburg ◽  
Lori D. Daniels
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Climatic Period ◽  
Fire Exclusion

The past 100 years marks a transition between pre-colonial and modern era fire regimes, which provides crucial context for understanding future wildfire behavior. Using the greatest depth of digitized fire events in Canada, we identify distinct phases of wildfire regimes from 1919 to 2019 by evaluating changes in mapped fire perimeters (>20-ha) across the East Kootenay forest region (including the southern Rocky Mountain Trench), British Columbia (BC). We detect transitions in annual number of fires, burned area, and fire size; explore the roles of lightning- and human-caused fires in driving these transitions; and quantify departures from historical fire frequency at the regional level. We found that, relative to historical fire frequency, fire exclusion created a significant fire deficit across 89% of the flammable landscape. Fire was active from 1919 to 1940 with frequent and large fire events, but the regime was already altered by a century of colonization. Fire activity decreased after 1940, coinciding with effective fire suppression influenced by a mild climatic period. After 2003, the combined effects of fire exclusion and accelerated climate change fueled a shift in fire regimes of various forest types, with increases in area burned and mean fire size driven by lightning.

scholarly journals A spatial and temporal assessment of fire regimes on different vegetation types using MODIS burnt area products

Bothalia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nokuphila L.S. Buthelezi ◽  
Onisimo Mutanga ◽  
Mathieu Rouget ◽  
Mbulisi Sibanda
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
Coastal Belt ◽  
Kwazulu Natal

Background: The role of fire in maintaining grassland diversity has been widely recognised; however, its effect in KwaZulu-Natal grasslands is still rudimentary. In that regard, understanding fire regimes of different vegetation types in KwaZulu-Natal is a critical step towards the development of effective management strategies that are specific to each vegetation type. Objective: To assess the effect of different vegetation types on fire regimes in KwaZulu-Natal using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) burnt fire products. Method: Ten years of fire data for four different vegetation types (Ngongoni Veld, KwaZuluNatal Sandstone Sourveld, Eastern Valley Bushveld and KwaZulu-Natal Coastal Belt) were extracted from the MODIS products and used as a basis to establish three parameters: annual burnt areas, fire season and fire frequency. The total burnt area within each vegetation type over the 10-year period was quantified. Results: The KZN Sandstone Sourveld had a high-burnt area of 80% in 2009 with KwaZuluNatal Coastal Belt having the least burnt area of less than 5%. Ngongoni Veld and the KwaZuluNatal Sandstone Sourveld had the highest fire frequency, while the coastal region had low fire frequencies. Results showed high fire prevalence during the late period of the dry season (which extends from June to August) across all the vegetation types. Conclusion: This study underscores the potential of remotely sensed data (MODIS burned area products) in providing a comprehensive view of fire patterns in different vegetation types

scholarly journals Demographic Effects of Severe Fire in Montane Shrubland on Tasmania’s Central Plateau

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Judy A. Foulkes ◽  
Lynda D. Prior ◽  
Steven W. J. Leonard ◽  
David M. J. S. Bowman
Keyword(s):  
Woody Species ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Seedling Regeneration ◽  
Central Plateau ◽  
Conservation Area ◽  
Severe Fire ◽  
Representative Area

Australian montane sclerophyll shrubland vegetation is widely considered to be resilient to infrequent severe fire, but this may not be the case in Tasmania. Here, we report on the vegetative and seedling regeneration response of a Tasmanian non-coniferous woody montane shrubland following a severe fire, which burned much of the Great Pine Tier in the Central Plateau Conservation Area during the 2018–2019 fire season when a historically anomalously large area was burned in central Tasmania. Our field survey of a representative area burned by severe crown fire revealed that more than 99% of the shrubland plants were top-killed, with only 5% of the burnt plants resprouting one year following the fire. Such a low resprouting rate means the resilience of the shrubland depends on seedling regeneration from aerial and soil seedbanks or colonization from plants outside the burned area. Woody species’ seedling densities were variable but generally low (25 m−2). The low number of resprouters, and reliance on seedlings for recovery, suggest the shrubland may not be as resilient to fire as mainland Australian montane shrubland, particularly given a warming climate and likely increase in fire frequency.

scholarly journals Multitemporal Mapping of Post-Fire Land Cover Using Multiplatform PRISMA Hyperspectral and Sentinel-UAV Multispectral Data: Insights from Case Studies in Portugal and Italy

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 3982
Author(s):  
Giacomo Lazzeri ◽  
William Frodella ◽  
Guglielmo Rossi ◽  
Sandro Moretti
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Vegetation Recovery ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sentinel 2

Wildfires have affected global forests and the Mediterranean area with increasing recurrency and intensity in the last years, with climate change resulting in reduced precipitations and higher temperatures. To assess the impact of wildfires on the environment, burned area mapping has become progressively more relevant. Initially carried out via field sketches, the advent of satellite remote sensing opened new possibilities, reducing the cost uncertainty and safety of the previous techniques. In the present study an experimental methodology was adopted to test the potential of advanced remote sensing techniques such as multispectral Sentinel-2, PRISMA hyperspectral satellite, and UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) remotely-sensed data for the multitemporal mapping of burned areas by soil–vegetation recovery analysis in two test sites in Portugal and Italy. In case study one, innovative multiplatform data classification was performed with the correlation between Sentinel-2 RBR (relativized burn ratio) fire severity classes and the scene hyperspectral signature, performed with a pixel-by-pixel comparison leading to a converging classification. In the adopted methodology, RBR burned area analysis and vegetation recovery was tested for accordance with biophysical vegetation parameters (LAI, fCover, and fAPAR). In case study two, a UAV-sensed NDVI index was adopted for high-resolution mapping data collection. At a large scale, the Sentinel-2 RBR index proved to be efficient for burned area analysis, from both fire severity and vegetation recovery phenomena perspectives. Despite the elapsed time between the event and the acquisition, PRISMA hyperspectral converging classification based on Sentinel-2 was able to detect and discriminate different spectral signatures corresponding to different fire severity classes. At a slope scale, the UAV platform proved to be an effective tool for mapping and characterizing the burned area, giving clear advantage with respect to filed GPS mapping. Results highlighted that UAV platforms, if equipped with a hyperspectral sensor and used in a synergistic approach with PRISMA, would create a useful tool for satellite acquired data scene classification, allowing for the acquisition of a ground truth.

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