Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric Measurements

The objective of this article is to create soil burn severity maps to serve as field support for erosion tasks after forest fire occurrence in Spain (2017–2022). The Analytical Spectral Device (ASD) FieldSpec and the CIMEL CE-312 radiometers (optical and thermal, respectively) were used as input dat...

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Main Authors: Rafael Llorens, José Antonio Sobrino, Cristina Fernández, José M. Fernández-Alonso, José Antonio Vega
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:Fire
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/7/12/487
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author Rafael Llorens
José Antonio Sobrino
Cristina Fernández
José M. Fernández-Alonso
José Antonio Vega
author_facet Rafael Llorens
José Antonio Sobrino
Cristina Fernández
José M. Fernández-Alonso
José Antonio Vega
author_sort Rafael Llorens
collection DOAJ
description The objective of this article is to create soil burn severity maps to serve as field support for erosion tasks after forest fire occurrence in Spain (2017–2022). The Analytical Spectral Device (ASD) FieldSpec and the CIMEL CE-312 radiometers (optical and thermal, respectively) were used as input data to establish relationships between soil burn severity and reflectance or emissivity, respectively. Spectral indices related to popular forest fire studies and soil assessment were calculated by Sentinel-2 convolved reflectance. All the spectral indices that achieve the separability index algorithm (SI) were validated using specificity, sensitivity, accuracy (ACC), balanced accuracy (BACC), F1-score (F1), and Cohen’s kappa index (k), with 503 field plots. The results displayed the highest overall accuracy results using the Iron Oxide ratio (IOR) index: ACC = 0.71, BACC = 0.76, F1 = 0.63 and k = 0.50, respectively. In addition, IOR was the only spectral index with an acceptable k value (k = 0.50). It is demonstrated that, together with NIR and SWIR spectral bands, the use of blue spectral band reduces atmospheric interferences and improves the accuracy of soil burn severity mapping. The maps obtained in this study could be highly valuable to forest agents for soil erosion restoration tasks.
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series Fire
spelling doaj-art-504e8eeefab44d5d89e4f8657bf3395a2024-12-27T14:25:51ZengMDPI AGFire2571-62552024-12-0171248710.3390/fire7120487Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric MeasurementsRafael Llorens0José Antonio Sobrino1Cristina Fernández2José M. Fernández-Alonso3José Antonio Vega4Global Change Unit, Image Processing Laboratory, University of Valencia, E-46980 Paterna, SpainGlobal Change Unit, Image Processing Laboratory, University of Valencia, E-46980 Paterna, SpainCentro de Investigación Forestal de Lourizán, Xunta de Galicia, E-36156 Pontevedra, SpainCentro de Investigación Forestal de Lourizán, Xunta de Galicia, E-36156 Pontevedra, SpainCentro de Investigación Forestal de Lourizán, Xunta de Galicia, E-36156 Pontevedra, SpainThe objective of this article is to create soil burn severity maps to serve as field support for erosion tasks after forest fire occurrence in Spain (2017–2022). The Analytical Spectral Device (ASD) FieldSpec and the CIMEL CE-312 radiometers (optical and thermal, respectively) were used as input data to establish relationships between soil burn severity and reflectance or emissivity, respectively. Spectral indices related to popular forest fire studies and soil assessment were calculated by Sentinel-2 convolved reflectance. All the spectral indices that achieve the separability index algorithm (SI) were validated using specificity, sensitivity, accuracy (ACC), balanced accuracy (BACC), F1-score (F1), and Cohen’s kappa index (k), with 503 field plots. The results displayed the highest overall accuracy results using the Iron Oxide ratio (IOR) index: ACC = 0.71, BACC = 0.76, F1 = 0.63 and k = 0.50, respectively. In addition, IOR was the only spectral index with an acceptable k value (k = 0.50). It is demonstrated that, together with NIR and SWIR spectral bands, the use of blue spectral band reduces atmospheric interferences and improves the accuracy of soil burn severity mapping. The maps obtained in this study could be highly valuable to forest agents for soil erosion restoration tasks.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/7/12/487forest firesSentinel-2soil burn severityradiometric measurementsfield plots
spellingShingle Rafael Llorens
José Antonio Sobrino
Cristina Fernández
José M. Fernández-Alonso
José Antonio Vega
Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric Measurements
Fire
forest fires
Sentinel-2
soil burn severity
radiometric measurements
field plots
title Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric Measurements
title_full Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric Measurements
title_fullStr Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric Measurements
title_full_unstemmed Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric Measurements
title_short Soil Burn Severity Assessment Using Sentinel-2 and Radiometric Measurements
title_sort soil burn severity assessment using sentinel 2 and radiometric measurements
topic forest fires
Sentinel-2
soil burn severity
radiometric measurements
field plots
url https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/7/12/487
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AT joseantoniosobrino soilburnseverityassessmentusingsentinel2andradiometricmeasurements
AT cristinafernandez soilburnseverityassessmentusingsentinel2andradiometricmeasurements
AT josemfernandezalonso soilburnseverityassessmentusingsentinel2andradiometricmeasurements
AT joseantoniovega soilburnseverityassessmentusingsentinel2andradiometricmeasurements