Monitoring Landscape Change for LANDFIRE Using Multi-Temporal Satellite Imagery and Ancillary Data

Abstract

Abstract-LANDFIRE is a large interagency project designed to provide nationwide spatial data for fire management applications. As part of the effort, many 2000 vintage Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus data sets were used in conjunction with a large volume of field information to generate detailed vegetation type and structure data sets for the entire United States. In order to keep these data sets current and relevant to resource managers, there was strong need to develop an approach for updating these products. We are using three different approaches for these purposes. These include: 1) updating using Landsat-derived historic and current fire burn information derived from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity project; 2) incorporating vegetation disturbance information derived from time series Landsat data analysis using the Vegetation Change Tracker; and 3) developing data products that capture subtle intra-state disturbance such as those related to insects and disease using either Landsat or the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). While no one single approach provides all of the land cover change and update information required, we believe that a combination of all three captures most of the disturbance conditions taking place that have relevance to the fire community.

Wildland Fuel Fundamentals and Applications

“…First, field data provide important references for the mapped fuels classes because the data provide the only detailed descriptions of fuels (loading, classification category). Field plot data can also be used to describe polygons that can then be used as training areas in supervised classifications, or they can be used to describe unique clusters in unsupervised classifications (Verbyla 1995). More importantly, field data allow the development of statistical models for predicting fuel characteristics over space using ancillary biophysical spatial layers.…”

“…6) yet there are few ancillary spatial data sources that describe stand history that can be used in fuel mapping. Vogelmann et al (2011) use fire severity maps to update the LANDFIRE vegetation and fuels data layers, but there are few comprehensive maps of other disturbances. Past fires both reduce fuel component loadings by consumption and increase loadings by causing plant mortality (Chap.…”

Improving estimates of forest disturbance by combining observations from Landsat time series with U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data

“…Visualization tools such as TimeSync demonstrate how a trained analyst can use the spectral and temporal information from Landsat along with other spatial data to record timing and cause of most natural and anthropogenic disturbance events. Such ancillary data include high spatial resolution photos from NAIP and Google Earth; fire polygons from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS, www.mtbs.gov;Eidenshink et al, 2007); and disturbance grids compiled by the Landfire program (www.landfire.gov; Vogelmann et al, 2011). Because of Landsat's long historical record, the analyst interpretation approach has surfaced as one of the best (and only) methods for collecting reference data over the full range (20-40 years) and interval (annual) of most time series maps.…”

The Feasibility Evaluation of Land Use Change Detection Using Gaofen-3 Data

“…Automatic and semi-automatic multi-temporal remote sensing images change detection technology has been widely used in land survey, urban research, ecosystem monitoring, disaster monitoring and assessment, military reconnaissance and other applications (LI et al, 2017;LI et al, 2016;HU et al, 2013;SONG et al, 2014;VOGELMANN et al, 2011;ZWLINSKI et al, 2014). Our government attaches great importance to the application of remote sensing change detection technology in the monitoring of geographical conditions.…”