Currently we can only assume that the severity with which fires
affect the vegetation is correlated to seasonality and indeed a set
of permanent plots in 3 of our major National Parks in the
“Top End” of northern Australia do support this with
only 3% of fires occurring in the early dry season being in the
most severe category compared with 30% of fires in the late dry
season.
Usually remote sensing scientists acquire satellite imagery and
attempt to determine the fire severity pertaining to that image or
set of images. My study will work from the ground up. To do this
requires considerable ground measurement both characterising the
on-ground severity with which the fire has affected the vegetation
and the spectral reflectance of that affected area.
The ground and spectral data will then be used in a Radiative
Transfer Model to determine those parts of the electromagnetic
spectrum appropriate in categorising fire severity. An algorithm
can then be developed to automate the process of mapping fire
severity.
