Brennan, James Robert;
(2020)
New techniques and insights for burned area monitoring from remote sensing data.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Satellite-derived datasets recording the global extent of burned area (BA) have been generated in the past two decades. These products provide vital information to fire-related disciplines. The algorithms used to produce these products generally share a low level of methodological consistency, are highly empirical, and lack some of the sufficient features required to produce consistent and error characterised long-term data records (LTDRs). This thesis sets out to re-examine the quality of the algorithms used to produce these products with the aim of advancing the quality of future BA products. While BA products have been validated and inter-compared, little is known about the individual qualities and sensitivities of their respective algorithms. A novel sensitivity analysis of six global burned area algorithms provides information on the key sensitivities determining detection of burned area from the observations as well as highlighting the limitations of present algorithms. This analysis highlights the need for quantitative quality information within BA products through uncertainty characterisation. Best practice frameworks for uncertainty characterisation have been developed for many Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) but not yet burned area. The thesis then goes on to develop suitable methodologies for estimating uncertainties in present BA products and future products. Global uncertainties of 4--6\% are calculated for current BA products, and the necessary error propagation frameworks adapted to be amenable to binary ECV records such as burned area. The information gained from the sensitivity analysis and advancement of uncertainty characterisation provides a framework to prototype multi-sensor algorithms suitable for producing uncertainty characterised LTDR BA datasets. This involves the application of a spectrally invariant model of the burn signal suitable for mapping BA in a probabilistic manner from optical sensors to provide consistent estimates through the satellite record.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | New techniques and insights for burned area monitoring from remote sensing data |
| Event: | University College London |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Remote sensing, Earth Observation, Wildfire |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10100839 |
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