BAER Soil Burn Severity Classification: Post-Wildfire Geospatial Data 2017-Present

The USDA Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program produces national mosaics of soil burn severity classifications for areas affected by wildfire. This thematic raster dataset contains four severity classes—unburned to very low, low, moderate, and high—derived from satellite imagery and validated by field teams. Data compilation covers assessments from 2017 through the most recent completed fire year.

Use Cases

• Model post-fire erosion risk based on soil burn severity classes.
• Assess the effectiveness of emergency soil stabilization treatments using validated field data.
• Analyze wildfire impact trends over time using the annual national mosaics.
• Integrate burn severity data with hydrological models to predict watershed response.

Strengths

• Data is validated by BAER teams through field collection, suggesting higher reliability.
• Covers a multi-year temporal range from 2017 to the most recent completed fire year.
• Provides a standardized, thematic classification with four distinct severity levels.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is variable (typically 30m or 20m), which may affect analysis granularity.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

USDA Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Imagery Support program.

Collection Method

Created using standardized change detection methods on Landsat or Sentinel-2 imagery, combined with field-collected soil condition data.

Time Range

2017 through the most recent completed fire year.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:50:38.767330; freshness should be verified.

Geography

National coverage (United States) for areas where BAER assessments were conducted.