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1984–2010 trends in fire burn severity and area for the conterminous US

International Journal of Wildland Fire
By: , , , and 
https://doi.org/10.1071/WF15039

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Abstract

Burn severity products created by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project were used to analyse historical trends in burn severity. Using a severity metric calculated by modelling the cumulative distribution of differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and Relativized dNBR (RdNBR) data, we examined burn area and burn severity of 4893 historical fires (1984–2010) distributed across the conterminous US (CONUS) and mapped by MTBS. Yearly mean burn severity values (weighted by area), maximum burn severity metric values, mean area of burn, maximum burn area and total burn area were evaluated within 27 US National Vegetation Classification macrogroups. Time series assessments of burned area and severity were performed using Mann–Kendall tests. Burned area and severity varied by vegetation classification, but most vegetation groups showed no detectable change during the 1984–2010 period. Of the 27 analysed vegetation groups, trend analysis revealed burned area increased in eight, and burn severity has increased in seven. This study suggests that burned area and severity, as measured by the severity metric based on dNBR or RdNBR, have not changed substantially for most vegetation groups evaluated within CONUS.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title 1984–2010 trends in fire burn severity and area for the conterminous US
Series title International Journal of Wildland Fire
DOI 10.1071/WF15039
Volume 25
Issue 4
Year Published 2016
Language English
Publisher Fire Research Institute
Publisher location Rosyn, WA
Contributing office(s) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description 9 p.
First page 413
Last page 420
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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