Satellite-Based Damage Assessment following A Wildfire Event in Cordillera de Sama Bolivia

Vargas-Cuentas N.I.; Roman-Gonzalez A. · International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (2023) · DOI: 10.14445/22315381/ijett-v71i2p231

Resumen

Each year, one of the countries most affected by forest fires is Bolivia, affecting 4% of its total territory. In 2017, a combination of environmental and human factors triggered a forest fire in the Cordillera de Sama Biological Reserve. This reserve houses species of flora, fauna and essential hydrographic basins for the region. Given this event, the present study uses Landsat 8 satellite imagery to calculate the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), the Normalized Burn Ratio - Thermal (NBRT1) and the Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (ΔNBR) in order to develop a satellite-based evaluation of the recovery following this wildfire event in Cordillera de Sama Bolivia. These indices were extracted from one pre-fire and five post-fire satellite imagery from 2017 to 2021, and it was found, analyzing the NBR, that the total burned area in 2017 was 122.1471 Km2 and in 2021 was 17.2494 Km2, registering a recovery of 85.88%. Finally, analyzing the ΔNBR, a reduction of 96.29% was observed in the area classified in the category of high-severity burn throughout the five years of study.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Tecnológica de Lima Sur; Universidad de Ciencias y Humanidades