Use of Multiple Spectral Indices to Estimate Burn Severity in the Black Hills of South Dakota
نویسندگان
چکیده
The Jasper Fire occurred in the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, during August and September of 2000. The fire disturbance to ecosystem characteristics was widespread and long-term. The goal of this study is to examine the correlations between spectral indices and field-observed burn severity, and to provide a practical method to estimate burn severity using remote sensing data. We used three Landsat images acquired in June 2000, June 2001, and May 2002. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), and Integrated Forest Index (IFI) were calculated from Landsat at-sensor-reflectance data. Differences of these spectral indices in first and second pre/post-burn years were calculated and analyzed with 71 field-based Composite Burn Index (CBI) data collected in May 2002. The results showed that NDVI and EVI differences correlated well with field CBI data in the first post-burn year with R values of 0.69s for all 71 plots and R values of 0.79s for 40 confident forest plots. NBR had good correlations with CBI data in both first and second post-burn years with R values of 0.63 and 0.60 for all plots and R values of 0.76 and 0.74 for confident forest plots. IFI had no correlation with CBI in the first post-burn year and had good correlation with CBI in the second post-burn year with R values of 0.62 for all plots and R values of 0.66 for confident forest plots. To investigate the advantages of spectral indices, multiple variable regressions were performed using two-year pre/post-burn differences of four spectral indices. The correlation of predicted CBI with field CBI is higher than any individual indices. The R values are 0.81 for all CBI plots and 0.87 for confident forests. These results indicated that the spectral indices contained valuable information of fire effects and have the capability to evaluate burn severity in a short period after a fire.
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