Portugal Burned Area Perimeters from Landsat Imagery 1991-1994

Burned Area Maps of Portugal contain fire scar perimeters for four consecutive years. The dataset includes five DXF vector files mapping all fire scars with an area of at least 15 hectares, derived from supervised classification of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery. The work was performed under the IGBP-DIS Regional Satellite Fire Data Compilation, with analysis by the Remote Sensing and Geographical Analysis Laboratory of DEF/ISA and the Direccao Geral das Florestas.

Use Cases

• Analyze annual fire scar perimeter changes from 1991 to 1994 to study wildfire frequency and size trends.
• Assess the spatial distribution of burned areas relative to the coastline and Spanish border provided in the dataset.
• Use the georeferenced fire perimeters with an accuracy of less than one pixel RMSE for validating other fire detection models.
• Study the impact of fires on landscapes by correlating fire scar locations from the DXF files with other land cover datasets.

Strengths

• Maps all fire scars with an area greater than or equal to 15 hectares, providing a complete threshold for significant events.
• Covers four consecutive years (1991-1994), allowing for multi-year trend analysis.
• Georeferenced to an accuracy of less than one pixel root mean square error, ensuring good spatial fidelity.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, with the last update in 1994, limiting analysis of recent fire regimes.
• Initial mapping for 1991 and 1992 was contracted to a private company, potentially introducing methodological inconsistencies before reanalysis.
• The dataset's size, row count, and specific column attributes are unknown, complicating initial assessment.

Provenance

Source

International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Data and Information System (IGBP-DIS) Regional Satellite Fire Data Compilation.

Collection Method

Supervised classification of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery using raw digital counts without radiometric calibration.

Time Range

1991 to 1994

Freshness

1994-12-31

Geography

Portugal, including coastline and border with Spain.