Burn Severity Maps of Soil Organic Matter in Northwest Territories, 2014-2015

Maps at 30-meter resolution show landscape surface burn severity from the 2014-2015 fires in Northwest Territories and Northern Alberta, Canada. The dataset was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration using Landsat 8 imagery and regression models trained with field data. Field observations estimated burned area across five severity classes in stratified plots.

Use Cases

• Training models to classify burn severity based on Landsat 8 spectral data and field-derived severity classes.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of soil organic layer combustion after boreal wildfires.
• Validating remote sensing burn severity indices against ground observations from stratified plots.
• Modeling carbon emissions from boreal fires based on mapped severity of soil organic matter.

Strengths

• Provides 30-meter resolution maps for detailed spatial analysis.
• Models are trained with field data from six stratified 10x10-meter plots per 1-hectare site.
• Uses a five-class severity scale (unburned to severely burned) with a calculated Burn Severity Index.
• Separate models were developed for the Plains and Shield ecoregions to account for regional differences.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific 2014-2015 fire events.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS imagery and multiple linear regression models trained with field data.

Time Range

2014-2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:41:30.191539; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northwest Territories and Northern Alberta, Canada