7th Workshop on Forest Fire Management - EARSeL, European ...

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I - PRE-FIRE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
higher the moisture, the lower the reflectance, this was expected as this
region is strongly affected by water absorption, which is known to lower
reflectance. These results correspond to the findings of Liu et al. (2004).
Using the first derivative enhanced the spectral signal produced by FMC
variation and highlighted more wavelengths that were significantly correlated
with FMC. This may be due to the fact that the first derivative reduces
the variability caused by changes in other factors such as soil reflectance
and solar zenith angle. A range of VIs showed strong correlations with FMC,
which corresponds to the findings of Chuvieco et al. (2002) and Danson and
Bowyer (2004) who found a significant correlation between FMC and NDII
and WI. To summarize, FMC exhibits important variations which affect the
spectral reflectance measured by airborne hyperspectral instruments, particularly
in the NIR and SWIR regions. Using the first derivative and specific
VIs improves the correlation between hyperspectral data and FMC. This
study indicates that airborne hyperspectral data may be used for FMC mapping
in semi-natural upland areas.
Acknowledgements - This study is funded by the Syrian government
through Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria. The authors would like to
thank the Natural Environment Research Council Field Spectroscopy Facility
(NERC-FSF), Alasdair Mac Arthur, Natural England, Moors for the Future, and
Sheffield City Council for their support. The airborne imagery was supplied
by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Airborne Remote
Sensing Facility (ARSF) (Grant Award GB08/3).
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