Assessing disturbance by fire
Fire
has a major impact on the Earth’s biosphere. This activity seeks
to document fire activity from global to local levels, so as to
provide information for greenhouse
gas and aerosol emission estimates, for identifying unsustainable
land use practices and protected area management. The primary source
of data for the location of fires and the detection of burnt areas
is Earth Orbiting satellites.
Objectives
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Document global fire occurrence; the location, extent and seasonality of fires. These data form a crucial input into global emissions inventories and to identifying fire regimes.
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To identify ‘sustainable’ fire regimes in key areas so as to be in a position to detect changes in land cover / land use
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To development techniques to support fire management programmes in protected areas in EU assisted priority areas.
Planned deliverables
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A fire regime database - The GBA2000 global fire data base will be supplemented with other sources of information on fire occurrence and extent so as to give a comprehensive database on biomass burning. The database will give parameters such as timing of burning season, length of burning season, type of vegetation burnt.
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A twenty year record of global fire activity (in this case burnt surfaces) as detected from low resolution satellite data
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A benchmark fire scar database – selected sites will be used for establishing a record of fire occurrence at given points in time over the last 20 years.
For more information on this topic, please contact Jean-Marie Grégoire
