Predicting gully rejuvenation after wildfire using remotely sensed burn severity data     

Kevin Hyde  Scott W. Woods  Jack Donahue 《Geomorphology》2007,86(3-4):496-511

The loss of surface vegetation and reduced infiltration caused by wildfires can trigger gully rejuvenation, resulting in damage to downstream aquatic resources and risk to human life and property. We developed a spatially explicit metric of burn severity — the Burn Severity Distribution Index (BSDI) — and tested its ability to predict post-fire gully rejuvenation in 1st and 2nd order basins burned in the 2000 Valley Complex fires in the Sapphire Mountains of western Montana. The BSDI was derived from burn severity data interpreted from Landsat 7 satellite imagery using the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) method, and ranged from 0.0 for completely unburned basins to 4.0 for basins burned entirely at high severity. In July 2001 rainstorms with peak 30-minute intensities of up to 17 mm h^− 1 triggered gully rejuvenation in 66 of the 171 basins examined. The frequency of gully rejuvenation was higher in basins with higher BSDI values, increasing from zero for basins with a BSDI less than 1.3 to 67% for basins with a BSDI greater than 3.0. Binary logistic regression indicated that BSDI was a more significant predictor of gully rejuvenation than basin morphometric variables. The absence of gully rejuvenation in several basins with a high BSDI was attributed to low gradient, dense riparian vegetation, or concentration of high burn severity at lower elevations in the basin. The presence of gully rejuvenation in several basins with a low BSDI was associated with false negative NBR classification errors in northwest aspects, and concentration of severe burn impacts in the drainage headslopes. BSDI is a useful metric for predicting gully rejuvenation after wildfire. The use of the BSDI in Burned Area Emergency Response team assessments could improve the planning, implementation, and monitoring of burned area recovery treatments.  相似文献   

黄河断流严重程度分级与判别方法   总被引：10，自引：3，他引：10  

钱征寒  倪晋仁  薛安 《地理学报》2001,56(6):691-699

根据1972年以来有关黄河断流的观测数据，选择与断流特点有关的特征因子组合，给出了能够反映断流状况的综合指标，并据此结合聚类分析得出了关于黄河断流严重程度的分类结果，指出了相应的分级原则。基于断流级别与河流径流量及其年内径流变差系数之间可能存在的密切关系，建立了反映三者关系的人工神经网络模型，用以判别已知河流来水特性条件下的黄河下游断流严重程度。此方法为定量描述和预测黄河断流的程度奠定了基础，其可行性通过与实际观测结果的比较得到了较为满意的论证。  相似文献   

Exploring the causes of an extreme flood event in Central New York,USA     

Peng Gao  Justin J. Hartnett 《自然地理学》2016,37(1):38-55

This study examined the causes of an extreme flood event on 28 June 2013 in Central New York, USA by comparing its hydrological, hydrometeorological, and rainfall-runoff transformation characteristics with those of a typical flood event. Flood frequency analyses showed that the maximum rainfall intensity and the peak discharge of the extreme event had recurrence intervals (RIs) of 8 and 86 years, respectively, while RIs for the typical event were 42 and 11 years, respectively. Their severity diagrams and quantification of their rainfall spatial variations illustrated that the extreme event was spatially localized with high intensities, whereas the typical event was spatially uniform and prolonged. Watershed modeling indicated that the rainfall-runoff transformation was dominated by the infiltration excess process for the extreme flood, while controlled by both infiltration and saturation excess processes for the typical event. These analyses revealed that the upgrade-magnitude conversion pattern of the extreme flood event was induced by the spatial pattern of the rainfall and the “lubricant” effect of the watershed, and emphasized the need for better understanding of such type of extreme events.  相似文献   

SENTINEL-2A red-edge spectral indices suitability for discriminating burn severity     

《International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation》2016

Fires are a problematic and recurrent issue in Mediterranean ecosystems. Accurate discrimination between burn severity levels is essential for the rehabilitation planning of burned areas. Sentinel-2A MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) record data in three red-edge wavelengths, spectral domain especially useful on agriculture and vegetation applications. Our objective is to find out whether Sentinel-2A MSI red-edge wavelengths are suitable for burn severity discrimination. As study area, we used the 2015 Sierra Gata wildfire (Spain) that burned approximately 80 km². A Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS)-grading map with four burn severity levels was considered as reference truth. Cox and Snell, Nagelkerke and McFadde pseudo-R² statistics obtained by Multinomial Logistic Regression showed the superiority of red-edge spectral indices (particularly, Modified Simple Ratio Red-edge, Chlorophyll Index Red-edge, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Red-edge) over conventional spectral indices. Fisher's Least Significant Difference test confirmed that Sentinel-2A MSI red-edge spectral indices are adequate to discriminate four burn severity levels.  相似文献   

The use of geometric and gamma-related distributions for frequency analysis of water deficit   总被引：7，自引：1，他引：6  

L. Mathier  L. Perreault  B. Bobée  F. Ashkar 《Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment (SERRA)》1992,6(4):239-254

This paper presents an approach to perform statistical frequency analysis of water deficit duration and severity using respectively the geometric and exponential distributions. Monthly mean water discharges are compared to a given threshold and classified in two mutually exclusive ways. This leads to a two state random variable such that: a success represents the absence of a water deficit event (mean monthly discharge exceeds threshold), and a failure, a water deficit event (mean monthly discharge is below threshold). If we suppose that this random variable gives rise to a Markov process of order 1, then the duration of a water deficit event X (consecutive months in deficit) will have a geometric distribution. In turn, the summation of discharges in deficit will give the severity of a water deficit event which can be represented by a one-parameter exponential distribution. The threshold or base level is taken as a percentile of the observed mean discharges of a given month. This base level, which varies from month to month, can be viewed as the limit of an acceptable deficit (or energetic failure) associated to a given empirical probability of being in deficit. The second step of the approach is to estimate the value of the parameter for each distribution using the maximum likelihood method. Expressions for the estimator of a given percentile, , as well as its variance are deduced. Finally, the presented models are applied to observed data.  相似文献   

Land surface temperature as potential indicator of burn severity in forest Mediterranean ecosystems     

《International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation》2015

Forest fires are one of the most important causes of environmental alteration in Mediterranean countries. Discrimination of different degrees of burn severity is critical for improving management of fire-affected areas. This paper aims to evaluate the usefulness of land surface temperature (LST) as potential indicator of burn severity. We used a large convention-dominated wildfire, which occurred on 19–21 September, 2012 in Northwestern Spain. From this area, a 1-year series of six LST images were generated from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data using a single channel algorithm. Further, the Composite Burn Index (CBI) was measured in 111 field plots to identify the burn severity level (low, moderate, and high). Evaluation of the potential relationship between post-fire LST and ground measured CBI was performed by both correlation analysis and regression models. Correlation coefficients were higher in the immediate post-fire LST images, but decreased during the fall of 2012 and increased again with a second maximum value in summer, 2013. A linear regression model between post-fire LST and CBI allowed us to represent spatially predicted CBI (R-squared_adj > 85%). After performing an analysis of variance (ANOVA) between post-fire LST and CBI, a Fisher's least significant difference test determined that two burn severity levels (low-moderate and high) could be statistically distinguished. The identification of such burn severity levels is sufficient and useful to forest managers. We conclude that summer post-fire LST from moderate resolution satellite data may be considered as a valuable indicator of burn severity for large fires in Mediterranean forest ecosytems.  相似文献   

Using hyperspectral imagery to predict post-wildfire soil water repellency     

Sarah A. Lewis  Peter R. Robichaud  Bruce E. Frazier  Joan Q. Wu  Denise Y.M. Laes   《Geomorphology》2008,95(3-4):192-205

A principal task of evaluating large wildfires is to assess fire's effect on the soil in order to predict the potential watershed response. Two types of soil water repellency tests, the water drop penetration time (WDPT) test and the mini-disk infiltrometer (MDI) test, were performed after the Hayman Fire in Colorado, in the summer of 2002 to assess the infiltration potential of the soil. Remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery was also collected to map post-wildfire ground cover and soil condition. Detailed ground cover measurements were collected to validate the remotely sensed imagery and to examine the relationship between ground cover and soil water repellency. Percent ash cover measured on the ground was significantly correlated to WDPT (r = 0.42; p-value < 0.0001), and the MDI test (r = − 0.37; p-value < 0.0001). A Mixture Tuned Matched Filter (MTMF) spectral unmixing algorithm was applied to the hyperspectral imagery, which produced fractional cover maps of ash, soil, and scorched and green vegetation. The remotely sensed ash image had significant correlations to the water repellency tests, WDPT (r = 0.24; p-value = 0.001), and the MDI test (r = − 0.21; p-value = 0.005). An iterative threshold analysis was also applied to the ash and water repellency data to evaluate the relationship at increasingly higher levels of ash cover. Regression analysis between the means of grouped data: MDI time vs. ash cover data (R² =0.75) and vs. Ash MTMF scores (R² = 0.63) yielded significantly stronger relationships. From these results we found on-the-ground ash cover greater than 49% and remotely sensed ash cover greater than 33% to be indicative of strongly water repellent soils. Combining these results with geostatistical analyses indicated a spatial autocorrelation range of 15 to 40 m. Image pixels with high ash cover (> 33%), including pixels within 15 m of these pixel patches, were used to create a likelihood map of soil water repellency. This map is a good indicator of areas where soil experienced severe fire effects—areas that likely have strong water repellent soil conditions and higher potential for post-fire erosion.  相似文献   

An analysis of non-normal Markovian extremal droughts     

T. C. Sharma 《水文研究》1998,12(4):597-611

In many arid and semi-arid environments of the world, years of extended droughts are not uncommon. The occurrence of a drought can be reflected by the deficiency of the rainfall or stream flow sequences below the long-term mean value, which is generally taken as the truncation level for the identification of the droughts. The commonly available statistics for the above processes are mean, coefficient of variation and the lag-one serial correlation coefficient, and at times some indication of the probability distribution function (pdf) of the sequences. The important elements of a drought phenomenon are the longest duration and the largest severity for a desired return period, which form a basis for designing facilities to meet exigencies arising as a result of droughts. The sequences of drought variable, such as annual rainfall or stream flow, may follow normal, log-normal or gamma distributions, and may evolve in a Markovian fashion and are bound to influence extremal values of the duration and severity. The effect of the aforesaid statistical parameters on the extremal drought durations and severity have been analysed in the present paper. A formula in terms of the extremal severity and the return period ‘T’ in years has been suggested in parallel to the flood frequency formula, commonly cited in the hydrological texts. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Relative suitability of indices derived from Landsat ETM+ and SPOT 5 for detecting fire severity in sagebrush steppe     

J. Norton  N. Glenn  M. Germino  K. Weber  S. Seefeldt 《International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation》2009,11(5):360-367

Remote sensing indices of burn area and fire severity have been developed and tested for forest ecosystems, but not sparsely vegetated, desert shrub-steppe in which large wildfires are a common occurrence and a major issue for land management. We compared the performance of remote sensing indices for detecting burn area and fire severity with extensive ground-based cover assessments made before and after the prescribed burning of a 3 km² shrub-steppe area. The remote sensing indices were based on either Landsat 7 ETM+ or SPOT 5 data, using either single or multiple dates of imagery. The indices delineating burned versus unburned areas had better overall, User, and Producer's accuracies than indices delineating levels of fire severity. The Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) calculated from SPOT had the greatest overall accuracy (100%) in delineating burned versus unburned areas. The relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR) using Landsat ETM+ provided the highest accuracies (73% overall accuracy) for delineating fire severity. Though SPOT's spatial resolution likely conferred advantages for determining burn boundaries, the higher spectral resolution (particularly band 7, 2.21 μm) of Landsat ETM+ may be necessary for detecting differences in fire severity in sparsely vegetated shrub-steppe.  相似文献   

Sources of inherent infiltration variability in postwildfire soils     

John A. Moody  Richard G. Martin  Brian A. Ebel 《水文研究》2019,33(23):3010-3029

An automated disc infiltrometer was developed to improve the measurements of soil hydraulic properties (saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity) of soils affected by wildfire. Guidelines are given for interpreting curves showing cumulative infiltration as a function of time measured by the autodisc. The autodisc was used to measure the variability of these soil hydraulic properties in three different sample sets: (a) a reference soil consisting of a nonrepellent, uniform, fine sand; (b) soils with the same soil textural classification derived from the same bedrock geology but having different initial burn severities; and (c) soils from different bedrock geology but having the same burn severity. The autodisc infiltrometer had greater sampling rates and volume resolution when compared with the visual minidisc infiltrometer from previous studies. There was no statistical difference in the mean values measured using the autodisc and visual minidisc, but the variability of the autodisc measurements was significantly less than the visual minidisc for a given set of samples. The greatest variability of soil hydraulic properties in reference samples with uniform particle size was attributed to different pore geometries (coefficient of variation [COV] = 0.28–0.34). Unburned field samples (same soil type) with heterogeneous particle sizes had greater variability (COV = 0.57–0.78) than the reference samples. However, this basic variability decreased or remained constant in these field samples as burn severity increased. Additional sources of variability (COV = 0.53–1.99) were attributed to multiple layers resulting from ash or sediment deposition. Results indicate that resolving differences in soil hydraulic properties from different sites requires more than the common 10 random samples because of the multiple sources of variability.  相似文献