Attributing Disaster landscapes: wildfire surveillance and hazard mapping
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1JONES Simon D.; 2REINKE Karin; 3GUPTA Vaibhav; 4SOTO-BERELOV Mariela; 5HOLDEN Lucas; 6HELD Alex; 7MITCHEL Simon; 8ECKHARDT Andreas; 9LEHMANN Frank; 10SKIDMORE Andrew; 11GRANT Ian
1RMIT University Email: simon.jones@rmit.edu.au
2RMIT University
3RMIT University
4RMIT University
5RMIT University
6CSIRO Land and Water
7RMIT University
8DLR
9DLR
10University of Twente
11Bureau of Meteorology
Abstract
<p>This paper describes a large Australian remote sensing project set within the context of wildfires. The project brings together researchers and end-users from across international and Australian federal and state government agencies and universities for the purpose of optimising earth observing systems to benefit wildfire science and management; specifically wildfire detection and surveillance, and fuel hazard attribution and monitoring. An overview of key activities is presented including preliminary results for the following tasks:</p> <p>An assessment of the utility of earth observation algorithms (MODIS, AVHRR andTET-1) for surveillance of the extent, intensity and configuration of bushfire in an Australian context. Results from the period 2000-2013 comparing satellite based burnt area products to state fire histories (i.e. the records of wildfire and planned burns recorded on the ground) suggest that small fires and forest fires consistently under-reported often by several orders of magnitude. Land tenure also seems to impact fire detection with fires on “multiple use forests” being harder to detect than those in national parks and nature reserves.</p> <p>LiDAR based assessments of landscape condition and biomass status (both pre-and post-fire) to enable a more accurate parameterisation of fire behaviour models. Case studies are presented of a range of structural vegetation metrics useful for monitoring fire induced change in the landscape. The efficacy of fuel reduction burns in reducing the incidence and severity of future fires is also evaluated.</p>