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Ten Years of Forest Cover Change in the Sierra Nevada Detected Using Landsat Satellite Image AnalysisThe Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) methodology was applied to detected changes in forest vegetation cover for areas burned by wildfires in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California between the periods of 1975- 79 and 1995-1999. Results for areas burned by wildfire between 1995 and 1999 confirmed the importance of regrowing forest vegetation over 17% of the combined burned areas. A notable fraction (12%) of the entire 5-km (unburned) buffer area outside the 1995-199 fires perimeters showed decline in forest cover, and not nearly as many regrowing forest areas, covering only 3% of all the 1995-1999 buffer areas combined. Areas burned by wildfire between 1975 and 1979 confirmed the importance of disturbed (or declining evergreen) vegetation covering 13% of the combined 1975- 1979 burned areas. Based on comparison of these results to ground-based survey data, the LEDAPS methodology should be capable of fulfilling much of the need for consistent, low-cost monitoring of changes due to climate and biological factors in western forest regrowth following stand-replacing disturbances.
Document ID
20140013197
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Potter, Christopher S.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Date Acquired
October 24, 2014
Publication Date
January 1, 2014
Publication Information
Publisher: Springer
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
ARC-E-DAA-TN12267
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Vegetation
Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS)
Wildfires
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