Evaluación y cartografiado de la severidad de los grandes incendios ocurridos en el distrito forestal XIV (Verín-Viana) entre 2006-2016

Abstract

The evaluation and mapping of the severity of the fire and the level of affectation of the canopies in forested areas is essential to propose and prioritize urgent rehabilitation actions after the fires. The main objective of this study is to map and obtain maps of levels of severity in the fires that occurred in forest district XIV (Verín-Viana) during the period 2006-2016. A first approximation has also been made towards the search for relationships between the highest classes of fire severity and canopy damage and certain topographical, meteorological and fuel variables. The study, based on the calculation of the dNBR indices (differenced Normalized Burn Ratio) and RdNBR (Relative difference Normaly Burn Ratio) from Landsat images, discriminates four classes of fire severity and four levels of canopy damage. The variables that most explain the percentage of burned area of the highest severity class and the highest level of damage to the canopies were the wind speed and the percentage of the area burned with slope between 30 and 45%. that the dNBR estimates a greater area burned in moderate and low severity in comparison with the RdNBR that estimates a greater area burned with high severity.