Dr. Peterson received her PhD in Geography from the University of Maryland. She has been at USGS EROS for that last 10 plus years, supporting various fire science projects, including the LANDFIRE program.
Dr. Peterson received her PhD in Geography from the University of Maryland. She has been at USGS EROS for that last 10 plus years, supporting various fire science projects, including the LANDFIRE program. Her primary interest is in leverage remotely sensed data to assess vegetation structure, especially as it relates to wildland fire.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 16
U.S. Geological Survey wildland fire science strategic plan, 2021–26
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wildland Fire Science Strategic Plan defines critical, core fire science capabilities for understanding fire-related and fire-responsive earth system processes and patterns, and informing management decision making. Developed by USGS fire scientists and executive leadership, and informed by conversations with external stakeholders, the Strategic Plan is aligned wi
Authors
Paul F. Steblein, Rachel A. Loehman, Mark P. Miller, Joseph R. Holomuzki, Suzanna C. Soileau, Matthew L. Brooks, Mia Drane-Maury, Hannah M. Hamilton, Jason W. Kean, Jon E. Keeley, Robert R. Mason,, Alexa J. McKerrow, James Meldrum, Edmund B. Molder, Sheila F. Murphy, Birgit Peterson, Geoffrey S. Plumlee, Douglas J. Shinneman, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Alison York
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Alaska Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Geologic Hazards Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wildland Fire Science
LANDFIRE remap prototype mapping effort: Developing a new framework for mapping vegetation classification, change, and structure
LANDFIRE (LF) National (2001) was the original product suite of the LANDFIRE program, which included Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC), Height (EVH), and Type (EVT). Subsequent refinements after feedback from data users resulted in updated products, referred to as LF 2001, that now served as LANDFIRE’s baseline datasets and are the basis for all subsequent LANDFIRE updates. These updates account for
Authors
Joshua J. Picotte, Daryn Dockter, Jordan Long, Brian L. Tolk, Anne Davidson, Birgit Peterson
LANDFIRE 2015 Remap – Utilization of Remotely Sensed Data to Classify Existing Vegetation Type and Structure to Support Strategic Planning and Tactical Response
The LANDFIRE Program produces national scale vegetation, fuels, fire regimes, and landscape disturbance data for the entire U.S. These data products have been used to model the potential impacts of fire on the landscape [1], the wildfire risks associated with land and resource management [2, 3], and those near population centers and accompanying Wildland Urban Interface zones [4], as well as many
Authors
Joshua J. Picotte, Jordan Long, Birgit Peterson, Kurtis Nelson
Enhanced canopy fuel mapping by integrating lidar data
BackgroundThe Wildfire Sciences Team at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science Center produces vegetation type, vegetation structure, and fuel products for the United States, primarily through the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) program. LANDFIRE products are used across disciplines for a variety of applications. The LANDFIRE data reta
Authors
Birgit E. Peterson, Kurtis J. Nelson
1984–2010 trends in fire burn severity and area for the conterminous US
Burn severity products created by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project were used to analyse historical trends in burn severity. Using a severity metric calculated by modelling the cumulative distribution of differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and Relativized dNBR (RdNBR) data, we examined burn area and burn severity of 4893 historical fires (1984–2010) distributed across the
Authors
Joshua J. Picotte, Birgit E. Peterson, Gretchen Meier, Stephen M. Howard
Spatially explicit estimation of aboveground boreal forest biomass in the Yukon River Basin, Alaska
Quantification of aboveground biomass (AGB) in Alaska’s boreal forest is essential to the accurate evaluation of terrestrial carbon stocks and dynamics in northern high-latitude ecosystems. Our goal was to map AGB at 30 m resolution for the boreal forest in the Yukon River Basin of Alaska using Landsat data and ground measurements. We acquired Landsat images to generate a 3-year (2008–2010) compos
Authors
Lei Ji, Bruce K. Wylie, Dana R. N. Brown, Birgit E. Peterson, Heather D. Alexander, Michelle C. Mack, Jennifer R. Rover, Mark P. Waldrop, Jack W. McFarland, Xuexia Chen, Neal J. Pastick
Automated integration of lidar into the LANDFIRE product suite
Accurate information about three-dimensional canopy structure and wildland fuel across the landscape is necessary for fire behaviour modelling system predictions. Remotely sensed data are invaluable for assessing these canopy characteristics over large areas; lidar data, in particular, are uniquely suited for quantifying three-dimensional canopy structure. Although lidar data are increasingly avai
Authors
Birgit Peterson, Kurtis Nelson, Carl Seielstad, Jason M. Stoker, W. Matt Jolly, Russell Parsons
Mapping forest height in Alaska using GLAS, Landsat composites, and airborne LiDAR
Vegetation structure, including forest canopy height, is an important input variable to fire behavior modeling systems for simulating wildfire behavior. As such, forest canopy height is one of a nationwide suite of products generated by the LANDFIRE program. In the past, LANDFIRE has relied on a combination of field observations and Landsat imagery to develop existing vegetation structure products
Authors
Birgit Peterson, Kurtis Nelson
LANDFIRE 2010 - updated data to support wildfire and ecological management
Wildfire is a global phenomenon that affects human populations and ecosystems. Wildfire effects occur at local to global scales impacting many people in different ways (Figure 1). Ecological concerns due to land use, fragmentation, and climate change impact natural resource use, allocation, and conservation. Access to consistent and current environmental data is a constant challenge, yet necessary
Authors
Kurtis J. Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Birgit E. Peterson, Joshua J. Picotte
The LANDFIRE Refresh strategy: updating the national dataset
The LANDFIRE Program provides comprehensive vegetation and fuel datasets for the entire United States. As with many large-scale ecological datasets, vegetation and landscape conditions must be updated periodically to account for disturbances, growth, and natural succession. The LANDFIRE Refresh effort was the first attempt to consistently update these products nationwide. It incorporated a combina
Authors
Kurtis J. Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Birgit E. Peterson, Charley Martin
Towards integration of GLAS data into a national fuels mapping program
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 f
Authors
Birgit E. Peterson, Kurtis Nelson, Bruce Wylie
A multi-sensor lidar, multi-spectral and multi-angular approach for mapping canopy height in boreal forest regions
Spatially explicit representations of vegetation canopy height over large regions are necessary for a wide variety of inventory, monitoring, and modeling activities. Although airborne lidar data has been successfully used to develop vegetation canopy height maps in many regions, for vast, sparsely populated regions such as the boreal forest biome, airborne lidar is not widely available. An alterna
Authors
David J. Selkowitz, Gordon Green, Birgit E. Peterson, Bruce Wylie
Improving forest structure mapping and regeneration prediction with multi-scale lidar observations
To make informed decisions, land managers require knowledge about the state of the ecosystems present. Vegetation structure is a key indicator of the state of forested systems; it influences habitat suitability, water quality and runoff, microclimate, and informs wildfire-related characteristics such as fuel loads, burn severity, and post-fire regeneration. Field data used to derive vegetation st
Evaluation and testing of standardized forest vegetation metrics derived from lidar data
The USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is managing the acquisition of lidar data across the Nation for high resolution mapping of the land surface, useful for multiple applications. Lidar data is initially collected as 3-dimensional “point clouds” that map the interaction of the airborne laser with earth surface features, including vegetation, buildings, and ground features. Generally the product of...
Black Hills Region South Dakota 2017 Legion Lake Fire Burned and Unburned Plot Measurements
U.S Geological Survey (USGS) scientists conducted field data collection efforts during the time periods of September 5 - 14, 2018, November 8 - 13, 2018, June 18 - 27, 2019, July 30 - August 8, 2019, September 13 - 19, 2019, and June 23 - July 1, 2020. These efforts used a combination of technologies to map twenty burned and twelve unburned forest plots at eleven sites in the Black Hills of South
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 16
U.S. Geological Survey wildland fire science strategic plan, 2021–26
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wildland Fire Science Strategic Plan defines critical, core fire science capabilities for understanding fire-related and fire-responsive earth system processes and patterns, and informing management decision making. Developed by USGS fire scientists and executive leadership, and informed by conversations with external stakeholders, the Strategic Plan is aligned wiAuthorsPaul F. Steblein, Rachel A. Loehman, Mark P. Miller, Joseph R. Holomuzki, Suzanna C. Soileau, Matthew L. Brooks, Mia Drane-Maury, Hannah M. Hamilton, Jason W. Kean, Jon E. Keeley, Robert R. Mason,, Alexa J. McKerrow, James Meldrum, Edmund B. Molder, Sheila F. Murphy, Birgit Peterson, Geoffrey S. Plumlee, Douglas J. Shinneman, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Alison YorkByEcosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Alaska Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Geologic Hazards Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wildland Fire ScienceLANDFIRE remap prototype mapping effort: Developing a new framework for mapping vegetation classification, change, and structure
LANDFIRE (LF) National (2001) was the original product suite of the LANDFIRE program, which included Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC), Height (EVH), and Type (EVT). Subsequent refinements after feedback from data users resulted in updated products, referred to as LF 2001, that now served as LANDFIRE’s baseline datasets and are the basis for all subsequent LANDFIRE updates. These updates account forAuthorsJoshua J. Picotte, Daryn Dockter, Jordan Long, Brian L. Tolk, Anne Davidson, Birgit PetersonLANDFIRE 2015 Remap – Utilization of Remotely Sensed Data to Classify Existing Vegetation Type and Structure to Support Strategic Planning and Tactical Response
The LANDFIRE Program produces national scale vegetation, fuels, fire regimes, and landscape disturbance data for the entire U.S. These data products have been used to model the potential impacts of fire on the landscape [1], the wildfire risks associated with land and resource management [2, 3], and those near population centers and accompanying Wildland Urban Interface zones [4], as well as manyAuthorsJoshua J. Picotte, Jordan Long, Birgit Peterson, Kurtis NelsonEnhanced canopy fuel mapping by integrating lidar data
BackgroundThe Wildfire Sciences Team at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science Center produces vegetation type, vegetation structure, and fuel products for the United States, primarily through the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) program. LANDFIRE products are used across disciplines for a variety of applications. The LANDFIRE data retaAuthorsBirgit E. Peterson, Kurtis J. Nelson1984–2010 trends in fire burn severity and area for the conterminous US
Burn severity products created by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project were used to analyse historical trends in burn severity. Using a severity metric calculated by modelling the cumulative distribution of differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and Relativized dNBR (RdNBR) data, we examined burn area and burn severity of 4893 historical fires (1984–2010) distributed across theAuthorsJoshua J. Picotte, Birgit E. Peterson, Gretchen Meier, Stephen M. HowardSpatially explicit estimation of aboveground boreal forest biomass in the Yukon River Basin, Alaska
Quantification of aboveground biomass (AGB) in Alaska’s boreal forest is essential to the accurate evaluation of terrestrial carbon stocks and dynamics in northern high-latitude ecosystems. Our goal was to map AGB at 30 m resolution for the boreal forest in the Yukon River Basin of Alaska using Landsat data and ground measurements. We acquired Landsat images to generate a 3-year (2008–2010) composAuthorsLei Ji, Bruce K. Wylie, Dana R. N. Brown, Birgit E. Peterson, Heather D. Alexander, Michelle C. Mack, Jennifer R. Rover, Mark P. Waldrop, Jack W. McFarland, Xuexia Chen, Neal J. PastickAutomated integration of lidar into the LANDFIRE product suite
Accurate information about three-dimensional canopy structure and wildland fuel across the landscape is necessary for fire behaviour modelling system predictions. Remotely sensed data are invaluable for assessing these canopy characteristics over large areas; lidar data, in particular, are uniquely suited for quantifying three-dimensional canopy structure. Although lidar data are increasingly avaiAuthorsBirgit Peterson, Kurtis Nelson, Carl Seielstad, Jason M. Stoker, W. Matt Jolly, Russell ParsonsMapping forest height in Alaska using GLAS, Landsat composites, and airborne LiDAR
Vegetation structure, including forest canopy height, is an important input variable to fire behavior modeling systems for simulating wildfire behavior. As such, forest canopy height is one of a nationwide suite of products generated by the LANDFIRE program. In the past, LANDFIRE has relied on a combination of field observations and Landsat imagery to develop existing vegetation structure productsAuthorsBirgit Peterson, Kurtis NelsonLANDFIRE 2010 - updated data to support wildfire and ecological management
Wildfire is a global phenomenon that affects human populations and ecosystems. Wildfire effects occur at local to global scales impacting many people in different ways (Figure 1). Ecological concerns due to land use, fragmentation, and climate change impact natural resource use, allocation, and conservation. Access to consistent and current environmental data is a constant challenge, yet necessaryAuthorsKurtis J. Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Birgit E. Peterson, Joshua J. PicotteThe LANDFIRE Refresh strategy: updating the national dataset
The LANDFIRE Program provides comprehensive vegetation and fuel datasets for the entire United States. As with many large-scale ecological datasets, vegetation and landscape conditions must be updated periodically to account for disturbances, growth, and natural succession. The LANDFIRE Refresh effort was the first attempt to consistently update these products nationwide. It incorporated a combinaAuthorsKurtis J. Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Birgit E. Peterson, Charley MartinTowards integration of GLAS data into a national fuels mapping program
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 fAuthorsBirgit E. Peterson, Kurtis Nelson, Bruce WylieA multi-sensor lidar, multi-spectral and multi-angular approach for mapping canopy height in boreal forest regions
Spatially explicit representations of vegetation canopy height over large regions are necessary for a wide variety of inventory, monitoring, and modeling activities. Although airborne lidar data has been successfully used to develop vegetation canopy height maps in many regions, for vast, sparsely populated regions such as the boreal forest biome, airborne lidar is not widely available. An alternaAuthorsDavid J. Selkowitz, Gordon Green, Birgit E. Peterson, Bruce Wylie - Science
Improving forest structure mapping and regeneration prediction with multi-scale lidar observations
To make informed decisions, land managers require knowledge about the state of the ecosystems present. Vegetation structure is a key indicator of the state of forested systems; it influences habitat suitability, water quality and runoff, microclimate, and informs wildfire-related characteristics such as fuel loads, burn severity, and post-fire regeneration. Field data used to derive vegetation stEvaluation and testing of standardized forest vegetation metrics derived from lidar data
The USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is managing the acquisition of lidar data across the Nation for high resolution mapping of the land surface, useful for multiple applications. Lidar data is initially collected as 3-dimensional “point clouds” that map the interaction of the airborne laser with earth surface features, including vegetation, buildings, and ground features. Generally the product of... - Data
Black Hills Region South Dakota 2017 Legion Lake Fire Burned and Unburned Plot Measurements
U.S Geological Survey (USGS) scientists conducted field data collection efforts during the time periods of September 5 - 14, 2018, November 8 - 13, 2018, June 18 - 27, 2019, July 30 - August 8, 2019, September 13 - 19, 2019, and June 23 - July 1, 2020. These efforts used a combination of technologies to map twenty burned and twelve unburned forest plots at eleven sites in the Black Hills of South