Characterization of Wildfires and Harvesting Forest Disturbances and Recovery Using Landsat Time Series: A Case Study in Mediterranean Forests in Central Italy

Large-scale forest monitoring benefits greatly from change detection analysis based on remote sensing data because it enables characterizing forest dynamics of disturbance and recovery by detecting both gradual and abrupt changes on Earth's surface. In this study, two of the main disturbances occurring in Mediterranean forests, harvesting operations and forest fires, were analyzed through the analysis of Landsat Times Series images in a case study in Central Italy (Tuscany region). Disturbances were characterized based on their distinct temporal behaviors before and after the event: a period of 20 years (1999-2018) was used to extract and analyze at pixel level spectral trajectories for each disturbance and produce descriptive temporal trends of the phenomena. Recovery metrics were used to characterize both short- (5 years) and long-term aspects of recovery for harvested and burned areas. Spectral, recovery, and trend analysis metrics were then used with the Random Forest classifier to differentiate between the two disturbance classes and to investigate their potential as predictors. Among spectral bands, the Landsat SWIR 1 band proved the best to detect areas interested by harvesting, while forest fires were better detected by the SWIR 2 band; among spectral indices, the NBR scored as the best for both classes. On average, harvested areas recovered faster in both short- and long-term aspects and showed less variability in the magnitude of the disturbance event and recovery rate over time. This tendency is confirmed by the results of the classifier, which obtained an overall accuracy of 98.6%, and identified the mean of the post-disturbance values of the trend as the best predictor to differentiate between disturbances.

Automated summary

Large-scale forest monitoring greatly benefits from change detection analysis based on remote sensing data, which was demonstrated in a case study in Central Italy focusing on harvesting operations and forest fires. By analyzing temporal behaviors and recovery metrics, it was found that harvested areas tend to recover faster with less variability compared to burned areas, with specific spectral bands and indices proving to be effective predictors for differentiating between the two disturbances.