Skip to Main Content
U.S. Forest Service
Caring for the land and serving people

United States Department of Agriculture

Home > Search > Publication Information

  1. Using QuickBird imagery to detect cover and spread of post-fire straw mulch after the 2006 Tripod Fire, Washington, USA

    Share via EmailShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on Twitter
    Dislike this pubLike this pub
    Author(s): Sarah A. Lewis; Peter R. Robichaud
    Date: 2011
    Source: Res. Note RMRS-RN-43. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 9 p.
    Publication Series: Research Note (RN)
    Station: Rocky Mountain Research Station
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.2737/RMRS-RN-43
    PDF: Download Publication  (1.22 MB)

    Description

    Agricultural straw mulch is a commonly applied treatment for protecting resources at risk from runoff and erosion events after wildfires. High-resolution QuickBird satellite imagery was acquired after straw mulch was applied on the 2006 Tripod Fire in Washington. We tested whether the imagery was suitable for remotely assessing the areal coverage of the straw mulch treatment. Straw mulch was easily identified in the imagery because of the distinct spectral signature of the mulch against the burned background. The measured straw cover on the ground was correlated to the modeled cover in the imagery with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.47, and a rank analysis indicated the ability to predict relative straw cover amounts on the plots with a rank correlation of ρ = 0.40. Better correlations may be possible if the time between the image acquisition and field validation was shorter. Our results encourage further exploration of the use of high-resolution imagery for research applications and postfire management.

    Publication Notes

    • You may send email to rmrspubrequest@fs.fed.us to request a hard copy of this publication.
    • (Please specify exactly which publication you are requesting and your mailing address.)
    • We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
    • This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

    Citation

    Lewis, Sarah A.; Robichaud, Peter R. 2011. Using QuickBird imagery to detect cover and spread of post-fire straw mulch after the 2006 Tripod Fire, Washington, USA. Res. Note RMRS-RN-43. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 9 p.

    Cited

    Google Scholar

    Keywords

    QuickBird, remote sensing, straw mulch, Tripod Fire, Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER), erosion mitigation

    Related Search

    XML: View XML
Show More
Show Fewer
Jump to Top of Page
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/37685