Browsing by Author "Smit, Walter J. (Walter Johan)"
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- ItemA comparison of selected satellite remote sensing techniques for mapping fire scars in limestone fynbos(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Smit, Walter J. (Walter Johan); Van Niekerk, Adriaan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies .ENGLISH ABSTRACT: There are many reasons to conserve fynbos. Not only does fynbos form part of the Cape floral kingdom, one of the richest floral kingdoms in the world, but the contribution that it makes to the regional economy through utilisation, education, recreation and tourist opportunities is immeasurable. Fire plays an integral role in fynbos ecosystems. According to Van Wilgen, Richardson & Seydack (1994: 322) " ... managing fynbos equates to managing fire". Therefore managers need accurate fire information about a fynbos area to manage it properly. This is where satellite remote sensing can provide the manager with useful information about the fire regime. In other words, satellite remote sensing can help a manager establish where and when an area has burnt. Using readily available satellite data, this study attempts to establish (through comparison) what techniques would be most suitable and affordable to compile a fire information database. Landsat Thematic Mapper data from 1990 - 1996 of the southwestern Cape was used and compared with existing fire records of the area. The results show that techniques such as supervised and unsupervised classification are reliable in identifying burnt areas, but a major drawback of these techniques is that they require a large amount of user input and knowledge. They are thus not regarded as simple or easily repeatable. - The' more simple techniques like image differencing and image ratioing were also found to be reliable in identifying burnt areas. These techniques require less user input and in some instances less data (image bands) to produce similar (or better) results than supervised and unsupervised classification techniques. The results show that differencing temporally different Images, obtained from applying principle components analysis, produces reliable results with very little confusion and little user input. Using such a technique could enable users to procure only two bands of Landsat data and still produce reliable fire information for managing a fynbos ecosystem.