scholarly journals Automated Burned Area Delineation Using IRS AWiFS satellite data

2014 ◽  
Vol XL-8 ◽  
pp. 1429-1432
Author(s):  
J. Singhal ◽  
T. R. Kiranchand ◽  
G. Rajashekar ◽  
C. S. Jha
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Deciduous Forests ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Forest Protection ◽  
Dry Grasslands ◽  
Forest Survey

India is endowed with a rich forest cover. Over 21% of country’s area is covered by forest of varied composition and structure. Out of 67.5 million ha of Indian forests, about 55% of the forest cover is being subjected to fires each year, causing an economic loss of over 440 crores of rupees apart from other ecological effects. Studies carried out by Forest Survey of India reveals that on an average 53% forest cover of the country is prone to fires and 6.17% of the forests are prone to severe fire damage. Forest Survey of India in a countrywide study in 1995 estimated that about 1.45 million hectares of forest are affected by fire annually. According to Forest Protection Division of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (GOI), 3.73 million ha of forests are affected by fire annually in India. Karnataka is one of the southern states of India extending in between latitude 110 30' and 180 25' and longitudes 740 10' and 780 35'. As per Forest Survey of India's State of Forest Report (SFR) 2009, of the total geographic area of 191791sq.km, the state harbors 38284 sq.km of recorded forest area. Major forest types occurring in the study area are tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen, tropical moist and dry deciduous forests along with tropical scrub and dry grasslands. Typical forest fire season in the study area is from February&ndash;May with a peak during March-April every year, though sporadic fire episodes occur in other parts of the year sq.km, the state harbors 38284 sq.km of recorded forest area. Major forest types occurring in the study area are tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen, tropical moist and dry deciduous forests along with tropical scrub and dry grasslands. Significant area of the deciduous forests, scrub and grasslands is prone to recurrent forest fires every year. <br><br> In this study we evaluate the feasibility of burned area mapping over a large area (Karnataka state, India) using a semi-automated detection algorithm applied to medium resolution multi spectral data from the IRS AWiFS sensor. The method is intended to be used by non-specialist users for diagnostic rapid burnt area mapping.

scholarly journals Forest development and conservation policy in Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38
Author(s):  
Hubert Szramka ◽  
Krzysztof Adamowicz
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Resources ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
World War ◽  
Forest Protection ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forest Act ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
Usual Development

AbstractWhilst, in many countries, the scale of forest loss from business-as-usual development is immense, in Poland, this problem does not exist. However, obtaining additional land areas for afforestation is a main issue in Poland. In Poland, after the World War II, the forest area has been systematically growing. In 1945, the forest area was about 6.5 million ha, and the forest cover was 21%. In 2016, the forest area reached 9.2 million ha, and forest cover amounted to 29.5%. Today, there are 0.24 ha of forests per one inhabitant of Poland. The size of wood resources in stands is also changing. In 1945, forest resources on the trunk amounted to approximately 906 million m3, and in 2016, it reached 2.4 million m3. The problem, however, is the uneven distribution of forests in Poland. Forests in Poland are very strictly protected by law. There are two most important acts, Forest Act of 2001 and Nature Conservation Act of 2004, that regulate principles for the retention, protection and augmentation of forest resources. Over the past decades in Poland, the social demands regarding non-economical functions of forest such as recreational activities, soil and water protection and mitigation of global warming became an important and constantly growing challenge for forest managers. Thus we suggest that, first of all, it is very important to extract the leading function for a given forest area. Interactions between development and conservations policies are very tied and may suggest the need of their integration. In this article, we present the concept of development policy for forest management and forest protection in Poland.

Fuel moisture, forest type, and lightning-caused fire in Yellowstone National Park

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy A. Renkin ◽  
Don G. Despain
Keyword(s):  
Yellowstone National Park ◽  
National Park ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Forest Cover Type ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Moisture Conditions

The occurrence and behavior of lightning-caused fires in Yellowstone National Park were summarized for 17 years (1972–1988) during a prescribed natural fire program. Both ignition (occurrence) and spread (stand replacing fire activity) of fires were strongly influenced by fuel moisture and forest cover type. Fuel moisture estimates of 13% for large (>7.6 cm) dead and downed fuels indicated a threshold below which proportionately more fire starts and increased stand replacing fire activity were observed. During periods of suitable fuel moisture conditions, fire occurrence and activity were significantly greater than expected in old-growth, mixed-canopy lodgepole pine (Pinuscontorta Dougl. var. latifolia) and Engelmann spruce–subalpine fir (Piceaengelmannii Parry–Abieslasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.) forest types, and significantly less than expected in the successional lodgepole pine forest types. During periods of extended low fuel moisture conditions (drought), sustained high winds significantly reduced the influence of forest cover type on stand replacing fire activity. These extreme weather conditions were observed during the later stages of the 1988 fire season, and to a lesser extent, for a short duration during the 1981 fire season. The Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forest type typically supported little stand replacing fire activity, even though a preponderance of fire starts was observed.

scholarly journals On the extent of fire-induced forest degradation in Mato Grosso, Brazilian Amazon, in 2000, 2005 and 2010

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka Miettinen ◽  
Yosio E. Shimabukuro ◽  
René Beuchle ◽  
Rosana C. Grecchi ◽  
Marcela Velasco Gomez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
The State ◽  
Carbon Accounting ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Burned Areas

In this paper we analyse the extent of fire-induced forest degradation in Mato Grosso State, Brazil. We utilise a sample based approach used in a previous pan-tropical deforestation survey to derive information on land cover and burned areas in the two major biomes of Mato Grosso: Amazon and Cerrado. Land cover and burned area are mapped for three years (2000–2005–2010) over 77 sample sites (10 000 ha each) distributed systematically throughout the state which covers 90.337 Mha. Our results indicate continuing forest degradation by fires in the state and potentially increasing fire susceptibility of the Amazon forests, regardless of the decrease in deforestation. 2010 witnessed the most extensive fire-induced forest degradation (~300 000 ha) in the forests of the Amazon biome among the study years, regardless of the fact that the fire season was less severe than in 2005. Deforestation in the Amazon biome in Mato Grosso dropped from 590 000 ha year–1 in the 2000–2005 period to 190 000 ha year–1 in the second half of the decade. The findings of this study advocate the inclusion of forest fire effects into carbon accounting initiatives.

scholarly journals Forestry and taxation characteristics of Spruce (Piceetum oxalidosum) stands in Udmurt Republic

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 20-30
Author(s):  
К.Е. Vedernikov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bark Beetle ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Deciduous Forests ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Taiga Forest ◽  
Spruce Stands ◽  
Udmurt Republic ◽  
Gradual Expansion ◽  
Acidic Type

The results of a forestry and taxation study of spruce stands of the acidic type of two forest districts of the Udmurt Republic are presented. The death of the most productive spruce individuals (productivity class I–II according to B.D. Zhilkin) and pure spruce plantations (acidic forest types, I–II class of bonitet) was noted due to the mass spread of bark beetle typographus (Ips typographus). The most extensive processes of shrinking of plantings were noted in the forest area of coniferous-deciduous forests of Udmurtia. A decrease in completeness in some areas of spruce stands to 0,1...0,3 was revealed, as well as the accumulation of large volumes of dead wood. A change in environmental conditions was revealed due to a decrease in completeness in spruce stands, which led to the development of field grasses and the growth of soft-leaved species. Despite the fact that the peak of the bark beetle development occurred in 2013, a gradual expansion of its range was revealed both in the forest area of coniferous-deciduous forests and in the south taiga forest area of the Udmurt Republic.

scholarly journals Forest Cover Upgradation and Degradation in Maharashtra State: A Geographical Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Monsoon Climate ◽  
Dense Forest ◽  
Average Rainfall ◽  
Total Geographical Area ◽  
Tropical Monsoon

Maharashtra is one of the all over developed state in India. It is western part of India with a long coast along Arabian Sea. It has an area of 307713 Sq Km which is 9.36 % of the country’s total area. It lies between latitude 15° 35’ and 22° 02’ North and longitude 72° 36 and 80° 54’ East Physiographically, the state can be divided into five distinct region, namely, Deccan plateau, Central highlands Eastern Chhotanagpur plateau, Eastern Ghats and coastal plains, Krishna, Bhima, Godavari, Tapi-Purna and Wardha-Wainganga are important rivers of the State. This paper attempt to the statistically analyze of up-gradation and degradation of forest cover on the land of Maharashtra. The state has a tropical monsoon climate with mean annual temperature ranging between 25° C and 27.5° C and average rainfall between 1600 mm and 2000 mm. The total geographical area is 36, 07,713 Sq Km, 6 revenue division, 36 District, 355 tehsils, and 535 towns as per the Census of 2011. Paper attempt to the statistically analyze of up-gradation and degradation of forest cover on the land of Maharashtra. The state has a tropical monsoon climate with mean annual temperature ranging between 25° C and 27.5° C and average rainfall between 1600 mm and 2000 mm. The total geographical area is 36, 07,713 Sq Km, 6 revenue division, 36 District, 355 tehsils, and 535 towns as per the Census of 2011. The recorded forest area of the state is 61573.03 Sq Km reserved forests constitute 83.10 %, protected forests 10.84% and unclassed forests 6.04% of the total forest area. In terms of forest canopy density classes, the state has 8712 Sq Km very dense forest 20747 Sq km moderately dense forest and 21169 Sq Km open forest as per the ISFR 2013 & 2015. Forest area decreased from 63,544 Sq Km to 61,724 Sq Km as per the census of 1960-61 and 2016-17, it means mostly degradation of forest day by day from the decade of 1961 to 2017 (Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2017-18).

Influence of Forest Cover on the State of the Ground Water Table

1953 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Wilde ◽  
E. C. Steinbrenner ◽  
R. S. Pierce ◽  
R. C. Dosen ◽  
D. T. Pronin
Keyword(s):  
Ground Water ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
The State ◽  
Ground Water Table

scholarly journals Evaluating Forest Cover and Fragmentation in Costa Rica with a Corrected Global Tree Cover Map

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3226
Author(s):  
Daniel Cunningham ◽  
Paul Cunningham ◽  
Matthew E. Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Agricultural Crop ◽  
Forest Change ◽  
Alos Palsar ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
The Impact

Global tree cover products face challenges in accurately predicting tree cover across biophysical gradients, such as precipitation or agricultural cover. To generate a natural forest cover map for Costa Rica, biases in tree cover estimation in the most widely used tree cover product (the Global Forest Change product (GFC) were quantified and corrected, and the impact of map biases on estimates of forest cover and fragmentation was examined. First, a forest reference dataset was developed to examine how the difference between reference and GFC-predicted tree cover estimates varied along gradients of precipitation and elevation, and nonlinear statistical models were fit to predict the bias. Next, an agricultural land cover map was generated by classifying Landsat and ALOS PalSAR imagery (overall accuracy of 97%) to allow removing six common agricultural crops from estimates of tree cover. Finally, the GFC product was corrected through an integrated process using the nonlinear predictions of precipitation and elevation biases and the agricultural crop map as inputs. The accuracy of tree cover prediction increased by ≈29% over the original global forest change product (the R2 rose from 0.416 to 0.538). Using an optimized 89% tree cover threshold to create a forest/nonforest map, we found that fragmentation declined and core forest area and connectivity increased in the corrected forest cover map, especially in dry tropical forests, protected areas, and designated habitat corridors. By contrast, the core forest area decreased locally where agricultural fields were removed from estimates of natural tree cover. This research demonstrates a simple, transferable methodology to correct for observed biases in the Global Forest Change product. The use of uncorrected tree cover products may markedly over- or underestimate forest cover and fragmentation, especially in tropical regions with low precipitation, significant topography, and/or perennial agricultural production.

scholarly journals Understanding the Impact of Different Landscape-Level Fuel Management Strategies on Wildfire Hazard in Central Portugal

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Akli Benali ◽  
Ana C. L. Sá ◽  
João Pinho ◽  
Paulo M. Fernandes ◽  
José M. C. Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategies ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Treatment Area ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
The North ◽  
Wildfire Hazard ◽  
Central Portugal ◽  
The Impact

The extreme 2017 fire season in Portugal led to widespread recognition of the need for a paradigm shift in forest and wildfire management. We focused our study on Alvares, a parish in central Portugal located in a fire-prone area, which had 60% of its area burned in 2017. We evaluated how different fuel treatment strategies may reduce wildfire hazard in Alvares through (i) a fuel break network with different extents corresponding to different levels of priority and (ii) random fuel treatments resulting from a potential increase in stand-level management intensity. To assess this, we developed a stochastic wildfire simulation system (FUNC-SIM) that integrates uncertainties in fuel distribution over the landscape. If the landscape remains unchanged, Alvares will have large burn probabilities in the north, northeast and center-east areas of the parish that are very often associated with high fireline intensities. The different fuel treatment scenarios decreased burned area between 12.1–31.2%, resulting from 1–4.6% increases in the annual treatment area and reduced the likelihood of wildfires larger than 5000 ha by 10–40%. On average, simulated burned area decreased 0.22% per each ha treated, and cost-effectiveness decreased with increasing area treated. Overall, both fuel treatment strategies effectively reduced wildfire hazard and should be part of a larger, holistic and integrated plan to reduce the vulnerability of the Alvares parish to wildfires.

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 The Role of Recent (1985–2014) Patterns of Land Abandonment and Environmental Factors in the Establishment and Growth of Secondary Forests in the Iberian Peninsula

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 817
Author(s):  
Marina Palmero-Iniesta ◽  
Josep Maria Espelta ◽  
Mario Padial-Iglesias ◽  
Òscar Gonzàlez-Guerrero ◽  
Lluís Pesquer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Deciduous Forests ◽  
Secondary Forests ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Leaf Habit ◽  
Forest Establishment

Farmland abandonment has been a widespread land-use change in the Iberian Peninsula since the second half of the 20th century, leading to the establishment of secondary forests across the region. In this study, we aimed to address changes in the recent (1985–2014) emergence patterns of these forests and examine how environmental factors affected their growth by considering differences in leaf-habit types. We used a combination of Landsat-derived land-cover maps and aboveground biomass (AGB) maps from the European Space Agency to assess the secondary forest establishment and growth, respectively, in the study region. We also obtained a set of topographic, climatic and landscape variables from diverse GIS layers and used them for determining changes over time in the environmental drivers of forest establishment and AGB using general linear models. The results highlight that secondary forest cover was still increasing in the Iberian Peninsula at a rate above the European average. Yet, they also indicate a directional change in the emergence of secondary forests towards lower and less steep regions with higher water availability (mean rainfall and SPEI) and less forest cover but are subjected to greater drought events. In addition, these environmental factors differentially affect the growth of forests with different leaf-habit types: i.e., needleleaf secondary forests being less favoured by high temperature and precipitation, and broadleaf deciduous forests being most negatively affected by drought. Finally, these spatial patterns of forest emergence and the contrasting responses of forest leaf-habits to environmental factors explained the major development of broadleaf evergreen compared to broadleaf deciduous forests and, especially, needleleaf secondary forests. These results will improve the knowledge of forest dynamics that have occurred in the Iberian Peninsula in recent decades and provide an essential tool for understanding the potential effects of climate warming on secondary forest growth.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document