Cartography of area burned in Galicia in the 21st century: presentation of the product and webmapping application
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Published:
19-07-2018
Main Article Content
Vol 25 (2018), Scientific articles
Submitted: 24-05-2018
Accepted: 04-07-2018
Published: 19-07-2018
Abstract
The main objective of this work is to produce an updated cartography of areas affected by wildfires in Galicia
(between 2001 and 2017), as well as to ensure potential users free accessibility to this spatial dataset through a webmapping application. The baseline information is the Burned Area product derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments, on-board NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. From this information, we generated the following secondary products: 1) annual burned area, 2) total area burned between 2001 and 2017, 3) fire recurrence and 4) time since last fire; at 500-m resolution, in raster and vectorial format. The annual burned area was compared with official fire statistics at the province level from Spanish Government. The results showed a high statistical correlation between the burned area estimated from MODIS product and official fire statistics (Pearson coef. = 0.92). However, MODIS product tends to overestimate the official burned area (mean = 2.76%), but in more or less extent depending on the year and province (SD = ±103%). Despite these limitations, these products constitute a key source of freely-available spatial information on wildfires in Galicia, with a wide range of potential applications for biodiversity conservation, forest management and land planning.
(between 2001 and 2017), as well as to ensure potential users free accessibility to this spatial dataset through a webmapping application. The baseline information is the Burned Area product derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments, on-board NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. From this information, we generated the following secondary products: 1) annual burned area, 2) total area burned between 2001 and 2017, 3) fire recurrence and 4) time since last fire; at 500-m resolution, in raster and vectorial format. The annual burned area was compared with official fire statistics at the province level from Spanish Government. The results showed a high statistical correlation between the burned area estimated from MODIS product and official fire statistics (Pearson coef. = 0.92). However, MODIS product tends to overestimate the official burned area (mean = 2.76%), but in more or less extent depending on the year and province (SD = ±103%). Despite these limitations, these products constitute a key source of freely-available spatial information on wildfires in Galicia, with a wide range of potential applications for biodiversity conservation, forest management and land planning.
Keywords:
Forest fires, wildfires, mapping, remote sensing, geographical information systems, Galicia