Development of a vegetation damage severity index for the Italian hyperspectral sensor PRISMA

The SAP4PRISMA (Development of algorithms and products for supporting the PRISMA mission) project is one of the five research projects funded by ASI (Italian Space Agency) with the objective to develop applications capable of suitably exploiting the data acquired by the satellite hyperspectral sensor PRISMA. PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) is an earth observation system combining a hyperspectral sensor with a panchromatic medium-resolution camera. The mission, fully supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), is devoted to Earth Observation and Remote Sensing Research to answer to the users increasing demand of accurate quantitative information about the Earth system. SAP4PRISMA project is focusing its research activities only on those geophysical parameters/applications/products that are suitable for the characteristics of the mission and in perspective for further international hyperspectral missions (EnMAP, HyspIRI, etc.). The project is structured in interconnected research activities aimed at consolidating the methodological issues for retrieving geophysical and agroenvironmental parameters to be used as inputs for the development of innovative complex products (e.g., nitrate leaching, land degradation and fuel maps, etc.). The products proposed in the frame work of the SAP4PRISMA project regard: (a) land degradation and vegetation status, (b) products development for agricultural areas, (c) management and monitoring of natural and induced hazards. Regarding the application of PRISMA for the management and monitoring of natural and anthropogenic hazards, we focus on the assessment of the damage severity and mainly on the effects of fire in vegetated areas interested by a fire. Moreover, project goal is to develop an index that, in the presence of an area where the vegetation shows a sharp decline, is able to understand the causes, that may not necessarily be linked to the occurrence of a fire (e.g., oil spills, floods, etc.). This paper aims at showing the results reached up-to-now in the process of developing such an index called DSI (Damage Severity Index).