Cálculo de la severidad en zonas incendiadas en la subcuenca del río Chambo en el período 2013 a 2016 mediante teledetección.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to calculate the severity of fires through spectral indices in the ecosystems of the Chambo River sub-basin and to determine the transition intensity in the period 2013 to 2016. In the research, landsat 8 satellite images were obtained through the Google Earth Engine tool for the calculation of spectral indices that was performed on the same platform, subsequently the spectral indices were combined: Normalized Burn Ratio Thermal (NBR) and Burn Area Index (BAI), to improve the detection of burned area polygons, the Normalized Burned Area severity index (NBA) was calculated, whose values were classified into high, medium and low severity. For the evaluation of the transition intensity, the TerrSet software was used to determine the gains and losses of each category. The results showed that the largest number of polygons detected as fires were located in the Herbazal del páramo ecosystem with a total of 962.88 hectares, located in the northwestern zone of the sub-basin with high severity values ranging from 931.24 to 3311.06. The transition intensity determined that the period between 2013 to 2014 obtained the highest rate of change corresponding to 50.2 hectares. To sum up, the application of remote sensing, is a favorable tool for the study of the severity left by forest fires. In addition, it is recommended to carry out and implement monitoring plans in the areas where high severity was determined, because their deterioration constitutes a threat to biodiversity conservation.