Preface:

Why do We Need a Remote Sensing Fire Effects Guide?

Recent years have seen a marked increase in the application of remotely sensed imagery for assessing burned area, fire behavior, and the ecological effects within those fire extents. As a result, the users of such data include researchers and other stakeholders who do not necessarily have a background in the theoretical basis of remote sensing. Therefore, it is important that users are aware of not only the potential of such data but also have a keen knowledge of the limitations and of how and when such data can be appropriately used. Minimizing the incorrect use of any technology or dataset provides the community with the ability to produce consistent, comparable, and ultimately defensible products. 

Guide Goals and Considerations:

The project PIs and co-authors developed this Guide with the following goals:

• Provide fire use practitioners with a fundamental understanding of remote sensing as it pertains to active fire characteristics and post-fire effects

• Provide fire use practitioners with the knowledge on how to use and interpret remote sensing data in an appropriate manner

• Clarify the terminology used by remote sensing community in order to to reduce confusion between researchers from a a variety of different, albeit fire-related fields.

This Guide seeks to be an objective information resource and does not advocate the use of any particular remote sensing dataset or method, nor do the examples included herein advocate for or against any particular land management method, objective, or other policy direction.

Contributing Authors:

This resource was born out of a project funded by the Joint Fire Sciences Program in 2005. The four-member editorial committee (below) was responsible for the development of the general outline and for the coordination of the guide’s production.

A list of additional contributors is given below:

Department of Forest Resources, University of Idaho,

Mike Falkowski, Paul Gessler, Zachary Holden

USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station - Moscow

Sarah A. Lewis, Pete Robichaud