BURNED AREA ASSESSMENT USING BAMS: A CASE STUDY OF UPPER NORTHERN REGION, THAILAND
Keywords:
Forest fire, burned area assessment, burned area mapping software (BAMS), Landsat data, Upper Northern region, ThailandAbstract
Currently, the burned area statistics of Thailand use only fire suppression data fromforest fire control station reports. However, forest fire phenomena are varied and someplaces are difficult to assess with ground surveys. The specific objectives of the study are:(1) to identify burned areas using burned area mapping software (BAMS) and assess theaccuracy and (2) to quantify and analyze the characteristics of the burned areas of theUpper Northern region of Thailand. BAMS is supervised burned area mapping softwarebased on Landsat data and two-phase supervised classification by using multi-temporaldifferences (pre- and post-fire scenes) of spectral indices. The research methodologyconsisted of 4 components comprising (1) data collection and preparation, (2) burnedarea extraction using BAMS, (3) accuracy assessment, and (4) overlay analysis.The results showed that in 2014, March had the most burned areas (1550.83 km2),followed by April (509.14 km2) and February (296.06 km2). Overall accuracy for 2Landsat scenes, Path 130 Row 47 (Date 13 March 2014) and Path 131 Row 47 (Date 20March 2014), with Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation(DNP) ground fire records in March 2014 were 93.23% and 90.72%, respectively. Basedon overlay analysis, Chiang Mai had the highest total of burned areas (511.96 km2)followed by Lampang (466.92 km2) and Mae Hong Son (400.28 km2). In addition, therewere 31 of 32 national parks affected by forest fires in 2014, the exception being SiSatchanalai National Park. The top 3 national parks which were most affected by forestfires were Op Luang, Mae Ping, and Mae Yom. Likewise, there were 21 of 22 wildlifesanctuaries affected by forest fires in 2014, the exception being Lamnam Nan Fang Khwa.
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