How Big is a Fire in Northern South American Savannas?
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| Autores: | , , |
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| Formato: | artículo original |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de Publicación: | 2018 |
| Descripción: | Knowing the extent of burned areas in the tropics is vital due to their environmental impacts. The Colombian Orinoquía region is affected by a burning season every year and presents natural conditions for the development of considerable size fires. The goal of this study was to determine what size a fire needs to be in order to be considered large, as well as the characteristics of these fires in the study area. For such purpose, a methodology was developed and applied based on MODIS satellite images, which were used to analyze and identify burned footprints using available historical data. The threshold used to consider a burned footprint as a “large fire” (≥214 ha) was determined by adapting Pareto’s 80-20 principle applied to the time series available and the particular conditions of the study region. Further analysis was conducted to establish temporality of burned areas by identifying the large burned areas between 2000 and 2014. Results show that large fires last approximately three days and cover an average of approximately 625 hectares. The largest fires occurred in regions with the highest occurrence of fires over the years, specifically, in areas with flat topography and vegetation cover prone to burning. |
| País: | Portal de Revistas UNA |
| Institución: | Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Portal de Revistas UNA |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.www.una.ac.cr:article/10813 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/perspectivasrurales/article/view/10813 |
| Palabra clave: | Orinoquía Colombia large fires satellite images grandes incendios imágenes satelitales |