Spatial patterns of forest fires in Catalonia (NE of Spain) along the period 1975-1995 - Analysis of vegetation recovery after fire

This paper revises the results of applying a semiautomatic methodology for fire scars mapping from a time series of Landsat MSS images over the forest and shrubby surface of Catalonia (1975-1993). Perimeters of fires which oc curred in 1994 and 1995 were added enlarging the whole series to 21 years f rom TM imagery. Results are a map series of fire history during 21 years as well as a map of the fire recurrence level. Omission errors are 23% for bu rned areas greater than 2 km(2) while commission errors are 8% for areas gr eater than 0.5 km(2). Detected fire scars were incorporated into a geograph ic information system in order to characterise the fire regime of the study area. Fire size distribution and the number of spot fires originated from each fire as well as the maximum distance reached from the main fire are an alysed. A first approach to monitor post-bum regeneration through normalise d difference vegetation index is also shown. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.