Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) Post-fire Imagery

Submitted by atripp on

The National Operations Center (NOC) provides remotely sensed geospatial data products to support management officials conducting Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) activities on wildfire-affected BLM lands. The ESR program is implemented to lessen post-fire effects such as erosion and to restore affected habitats. Remote sensing products assist management officials in completing key objectives, including monitoring vegetation treatments and reforestation and rehabilitating land cover. The NOC currently leverages the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 constellation to provide ESR support to requesting officials. Sentinel-2’s spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution make it well-suited for wildfire applications. ESR support products include pre- and post-event visible to shortwave-infrared (VSWIR) imagery, which has been spatially subset to the fire-affected area. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), Delta NDVI (dNDVI), Delta NBR (dNBR), and Delta Fire Retardant Index (dFRI) location products are also derived and disseminated to meet ESR objectives. Custom datasets may be developed for field offices with event-specific needs, such as maps identifying the spatial extent of bulldozer disturbances. Finally, the NOC provides a classification product identifying burned and unburned cover. Compilations of all ESR pre- and post-fire multispectral imagery, and classification data, are published as image and map services, respectively, and made available to all interested BLM officials.

European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 products derived in response to the Ranch Fire in California. (A) Pre-fire multispectral image. (B) Post-fire multispectral image. (C) dNBR from pre- and post-fire NBRs. (D) dFRI identifying fire retardant applications. (E) Bulldozer disturbances. (F) Vector classification identifying burned and unburned cover. NOTE: dNBR = Delta Normalized Burn Ratio; dFRI = Delta Fire Retardant Index (see text)

Platform
Author Name
Christopher Cole
Author Email
cjcole@blm.gov