Monitoring areas damaged by forest fires in Andalusia, Spain (2019-07-01)

<br/> Activation date: 2019-07-01 <br/> Event type: Forest fire, wild fire <br/> <br/> Activation reason: <br/> The scope of the service request EMSN060 is to evaluate the status of the environment affected by two forest fires that occurred in the summer of 2017 in the Spanish provinces of Huelva and Seville (Andalusia Region). To allow detailed analyses, the affected areas (4,163 ha in AOI 01-Granada de Rio Tinto and 823 ha in AOI 02-El Campillo) were flown to get recent aerial orthoimages (GSD 0.2m, RGB and NIR bands) one year after the event.&nbsp;Fire severity assessmentAssessed by the spectral indices: Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) from Sentinel-2 in six dates from the pre-event and five dates after the fires until recently.&nbsp;Assessment of vegetation recoveryProvides indication of the vegetation restoration in the areas damaged by the forest fires. The product provides the spatial distribution of categorized classes related to vegetation restoration process. Specific parameters as height differences and vegetation cover evolution in the 1-year post-event period were considered. The categorization discriminates maintained, affected and eliminated vegetation classes for three height categories (low &lt;1m, shrubby 1-3m, woody &gt;3), that are complemented with recovery status assessment.Vegetation Volume Change 2015 &ndash; 2018Calculated based on two normalized digital surface models (nDSM) acquired before and after the fire. Vegetation was classified into three height classes. The product provides vegetation height class change inside and outside the affected areas at 2m resolution.Assessment of the observed soil lossThe post-event imagery revealed evidences of soil loss represented by an increase of the runoff and densification of the stream network as expected after the removal of vegetation because of a forest fire. These evidences were registered in a post-event hydrographic vector layer.&nbsp;Additionally, the calculation of the Erosion Coefficient (Z) using the Erosion Potential Method (EPM) was done and compared between pre and post-event situation, providing a qualitative indicator of soil loss.&nbsp;&nbsp;Assessment of the road network statusThe assessment is focused in comparing the status of the transportation network after the fires with the pre-event conditions. The main objective has been to assess the damages and the improvements on each road, assigning to each mapped road their capability of being circulated.Erosion RiskEvaluated using the Landslide Susceptibility Index (LSI) from the Pan-European landslide susceptibility map Methodology ELSUS v2.&nbsp; LSI is expressed as an index (0-1). Results are classified in five categories from very low risk to very high risk.&nbsp;Landslide RiskEvaluated in terms of average of loss of soil (ton ha-1 yr-1) based on empirical RUSLE equation. Results are classified in five categories from very low risk to very high risk, according to the same intervals used in Rediam Website.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br/> <br/>