Abstract
A forest fire occurred in Nishiokoppe village, in northern Hokkaido, Japan, on 20-21 April 1998. Under strong winds, the burnt area extended over an area of 43 ha, including private forests of 28.4 ha and Hokkaido prefectural forest of 11.4 ha. This study examined the effectiveness and practicality of forest fire monitoring using satellite data. The study selected the optimum SPOT band and vegetation index for classifying forest cover type to distinguish between burnt stands. The field survey and analysis found the following. (1) The reflectance value for heavily damaged stands was lower than the value for other stands using three SPOT XS bands and the vegetation indices. (2) The vegetation index (Veg. index) of the transformed band between SPOT XS3-XS2 was useful for distinguish-ing the burnt areas of forest. (3) A forest cover type classification was produced using the supervised maximum-likelihood classifier using band XS1, the Veg. index, and NDVI, since they showed different spectral patterns. (4) The burnt area of forest was about 24 ha and the agreement rate for the burnt area with field measurements was 52.9%. This was attributed to differences in leaf phenology (unopened, emerging, open) and the fire tolerance of deciduous trees in spring. The burnt area in the satellite images was smaller than that measured in the field. (5) A system for forest disaster monitoring using satellite data in Japan was demonstrated.
