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Towards integration of GLAS data into a national fuels mapping program

February 1, 2013

Comprehensive canopy structure and fuel data are critical for understanding and modeling wildland fire. The LANDFIRE project produces such data nationwide based on a collection of field observations, Landsat imagery, and other geospatial data. Where field data are not available, alternate strategies are being investigated. In this study, vegetation structure data available from GLAS were used to fill this data gap for the Yukon Flats Ecoregion of interior Alaska. The GLAS-derived structure and fuel layers and the original LANDFIRE layers were subsequently used as inputs into a fire behavior model to determine what effect the revised inputs would have on the model outputs. The outputs showed that inclusion of the GLAS data enabled better landscape-level characterization of
vegetation structure and therefore enabled a broader wildland fire modeling capability. The results of this work underscore how GLAS data can be incorporated into LANDFIRE canopy structure and fuel mapping.

Publication Year 2013
Title Towards integration of GLAS data into a national fuels mapping program
Authors Birgit E. Peterson, Kurtis Nelson, Bruce Wylie
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing
Index ID 70043370
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center