Fire regimes and post-fire regeneration in the eastern Iberian peninsula using gis and remote sensing techniques

Abstract

The study area, located in the center of the eastern littoral of the Iberian Peninsula, was selected for this thesis to show an alarming increase in fire regimes in this Mediterranean region and to demonstrate consequent vegetation behavioral changes using multi-temporal satellite imagery. A corresponding time series of 10 Landsat TM images covering the period between 1984 and 2000 was processed and vegetation indices were applied to derive behavioral estimates in the photosynthetic vegetation cover. Moreover, water energy dynamics and heterogeneity theory were applied to explain spatial and temporal trends on the unburned and burned vegetation. The constructed models suggest some permanent patterns of vegetation behavior through time and reinforce the hypothesis that the increase in fire frequency and severity plays a negative effect on the affected vegetation status.