Cartografía de la afección y recuperación vegetal del incendio de Las Peñuelas en Moguer (Huelva) con imágenes satelitales. Año 2017

Abstract

Deep knowledge of the regeneration processes after a forest fire is key to addressing their adverse environmental impacts, these are especially evident in the vegetation. In the post-fire environment context, the fire severity constitutes a critical variable that affects the ecosystem response in terms of vegetation recovery and hydrogeomorphological dynamics after the fire. Therefore, the severity accurate assessment is essential for the burned areas management because of it allows the identification of priority areas and, therefore, it helps to carry out recovery strategies and measures. The area of interest is located in the natural place of Las Peñuelas (Huelva), where a large fire took place on June 24, 2017 that affected almost 10 000 ha. The methodology was based on the calculation of the RBR (Relativized Burn Ratio) spectral index to estimate the severity of the fire, and the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) index to evaluate the recovery of vegetal vigor. For the work, images from the Sentinel-2 and Pleiades satellites, images acquired by UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and field samplings were used. The result was a cartography showing the levels of recovery or degradation of the affected vegetation.