1. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Mapping of burnt areas at global level: current possibilities offered by optical Earth Observation Systems J-M. Grégoire 1 & P. A. Brivio 2 1 Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit - Space Applications Institute - Joint Research Centre 2 Telerilevamento - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Milano January 31 st 2001

2. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Why looking at burnt areas at global level ?  Just because we are all a little bit fire-bug ?  Because it’s one of the 4 elements ?  Or because it’s a scientific issue ?

3. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit It’s a scientific issue for at least 3 reasons  Fire is a global scale phenomena  It has a direct impact on the vegetation cover type and condition, with consequences in terms of: - changes or maintenance of the vegetation cover - soil erosion - degradation, or maintenance, of the biodiversity  It has a direct impact on the chemistry of the lower troposphere, with 3 major consequences: - the emission of large quantities of green house gases and of aerosols - the modification of the radiative transfer at the biosphere-atmosphere interface - the acidification of precipitations

4. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Vegetation fires A global scale phenomena There is at any time a fire burning somewhere at the surface of the Earth Dwyer et al., 1999, J. of Biogeography

5. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Burning has a direct impact on the vegetation cover type and condition Frequent burningis favouring the fire resistant species Palm savanna - Ivory Coast

6. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Burning has a direct impact on the vegetation cover type and condition Frequent burningis shaping the structure of the vegetation cover Gallery forest - Ivory Coast

7. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Burning has a direct impact on soil erosion Slash and burn agriculture - Vietnam/Laos border Soil is totally unprotected against the heavy storms at the beginning of the rainy season

8. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Burning has a direct impact on the vegetation cover type and condition, with deep impact on the biodiversity Bolivia (Amazon Basin) Suriname Maintenance of a given habitat Destruction of the habitat

9. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Vegetation fires have a direct impact on the chemistry of the lower troposphere Importance of biomass burning as “ anthropogenic emissions source of greenhouse gases and aerosols” (Kyoto Protocol) SpeciesAll human sourcesBiomass burningGlobal savannas fires (Tg/yr)(Tg/yr) % (Tg/yr) % ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CO 2 33700 a 1350040607018 CO1600 a 68043 24015 CH 4 275 a 4316 93 Aerosols390 e 9023 379 Black carbon 90 e 606733 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a: Houghton et al., 1995 e: Scholes & Andreae, 2000

10. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit What is a vegetation fire ? What are we looking at ?

11. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Fire on the ground Wet savanna - Cote d’Ivoire Tropical woodland - Northern Australia A narrow fire front running through the savanna

12. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Fire as seen from low altitude air survey Tropical woodland - Central African Republic A fire front + a burnt area + a smoke plume

13. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Fire as seen from low resolution satellite imagery Northern Australia - June 1st 1999 - 550km x 550km SPOT-VEGETATION 10.30 am NOAA-AVHRR 4 pm

14. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit The use of satellite remote sensing see second part by P.A. Brivio file: Insubria_Brivio.ppt

15. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Short-term perspectives  The Global Burnt Area 2000 initiative: GBA-2000 Mapping, from SPOT-VEGETATION S1 imagery, of the areas burnt globally during the year 2000  The WORLD FIRE WEB Network A system for globally mapping vegetation fires in near real-time, using the NOAA-AVHRR satellite

16. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit GBA 2000: a network approach CSIRO(AU) - UTL(P) - NRI(UK) - CNR(I) - CCRS (CA) - CRG (CA) - IFI (RU) - SAI (EU) GBA test-sites (white rectangles; indicative position), with corresponding geographical coordinates (Ul; LR corners) 63N - 81W 44N - 55W (CRG) 62.5N-112W 57N-104.5W (CCRS) 18N - 93W 7N - 77W (NRI) 5S - 75W 20S - 45W (UTL) 17S - 21E 28S - 29E (NRI) 10S - 22E 28S - 42E (UTL) 18N - 18W 0 - 52E (CNR) 44N - 10W 36N - 0 (UTL) 11S - 125E 21S - 135E (CSIRO) 60N - 118E 48N - 140E (IFI) 68N - 45E 60N - 60E (IFI) 55N - 115E 40N - 135E (UTL) 10S - 125E 18S - 146E (GVM)

17. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Year 2001 The WORLD FIRE WEB Network 18 regional fire monitoring centres

18. Space Applications Institute (jmg/Publi/Varese_2001/Seminar_Insubria.ppt) Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit Ahern F., et al., 2000, Forest fire monitoring and mapping: a component of Global Observation of Forest Cover. Publications of the European Commission, EUR 19588, Luxembourg, 253 pp. Barbosa P.M., et al., 1999, An assessment of vegetation fire in Africa (1981-1991): burned areas, burned biomass and atmospheric emissions. Global Biogeochemical Cycles,Vol. 13, No. 04, p. 933-950. Brivio P. A. e J.-M. Grégoire, 1997, Gli incendi nella fascia tropicale del globo: aspetti metodologici nell'analisi dei dati da satellite. Rivista Italiana di Telerilevamento, n. 11, pp. 17-26. Dwyer E., et al., 1999, Characterization of the spatio-temporal patterns of global fire activity using satellite imagery for the period April 1992 to March 1993. J. of Biogeography, Vol 27, pp 57 – 69. Grégoire J-M., et al., 1999, Satellite monitoring of vegetation fires for EXPRESSO: Outline of activity and relative importance of the study area in the continental context and global context of biomass burning. J. Geophysical Res, Vol. 104, D23, 30,691-30,699. Grégoire J-M., et al., 2000, The SMOKO experiment: development and test of a multi-systems approach to burnt area mapping from optical, thermal and microwave satellite data. Publication of the European Commission, EUR 19596 EN, 74 pp. Stroppiana D., et al., The Global Fire Product: daily fire occurrence, from April 1992 to December 1993, derived from NOAA-AVHRR data. Int. J. of Remote Sensing, Vol. 21, No. 6/7, April 2000, 1279-1288. Thank you to Luigi Boschetti CNR/Milanmapping burnt areas from geostationnary satellites Edward DywerSARMAPmapping fires from AVHRR Marta MaggiCNR/Milanmapping burnt areas from AVHRR and VGT data Simon PinnockJRC/Ispraresponsible World Fire Web network Daniela StroppianaJRC/Ispramapping burnt areas from VGT data and all the friends around the world who contribute to the World Fire Web and Global Burnt Area networks Some references