Radar and multispectral remote sensing data accurately estimate vegetation vertical structure diversity as a fire resilience indicator

The structural complexity of plant communities contributes to maintaining the ecosystem functioning in fire-prone landscapes and plays a crucial role driving ecological resilience fire. objective this study was evaluate fire off several with reference temporal evolution their vertical diversity (VSD) estimated from data fusion C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter (Sentinel-1) multispectral remote sensing reflectance (Sentinel-2) burned landscape western Mediterranean Basin. We VSD field 1 2 years after using Shannon's index as measure heterogeneity vegetation structure cover strata, both unburned control plots. Random forest (RF) used model (analogous prefire scenario) plots (1 year fire) predictors (i) Sentinel-1 VV VH coefficients (ii) surface Sentinel-2 bands. transferability RF wildfire also evaluated. generated prediction maps across site for scenario 4 postfire. models accurately explained (R2 = 87.68; RMSE 0.16) 80.48; 0.13). only involved reduction predictive capacity 0.13 0.20 terms RMSE. each community disturbance significantly lower than scenario. Plant dominated by resprouter species featured higher recovery values facultative or obligate seeders. Our results support applicability SAR monitoring generalizable indicator landscapes.