Using long time series of Landsat data to monitor fire events and post-fire dynamics and identify driving factors.: A case study in the Ayora region (eastern Spain)

The Ayora region, situated about 60 km southwest of the city of Valencia/Spain, was chosen to demonstrate pathways of characterizing fire events and post-fire succession in Mediterranean ecosystems using multi-temporal satellite imagery. A corresponding time series of 6 Landsat MSS, 13 Landsat-5 TM and 1 Landsat-7 ETM+images, covering the period 1975-2000, was processed to account for geometric and radiometric distortions as well as sensor calibration. Spectral Mixture Analysis was applied to derive estimates of photosynthetic active green vegetation cover as a primary indicator. A combination of pixel-based linear trend analysis and diachronic thresholding was employed to procure a fire perimeter data base and characterize post-fire dynamics based on a temporally stratified trend analysis. The results were integrated with auxiliary information to evaluate driving factors and further interpreted in relation to field-based information on plant communities and post-fire succession patterns. Reflecting typical recovery phases with an initial establishment of grasses and herbaceous species, followed by a gradual development of a shrub layer and the subsequent colonization of tree individuals, temporal trajectories could be described by exponential functions and were related to plot-based botanical information. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Inc.