Burned area mapping in Africa with SPOT-VEGETATION imagery: Accuracy assessment with Landsat ETM plus data, influence of spatial pattern and vegetation type

An algorithm for burned area mapping in Africa based on classification trees was developed using SPOT-VEGETATION imagery. The derived 1 km spatial resolution maps were compared with 30 m resolution maps obtained with 13 Landsat scenes, through linear regression analysis. The procedure quantifies the bias in burned area estimation present in the low resolution burned area maps. Good correspondence was observed for seven sites, with values of R-2 ranging from 0.787 to 0.983. Poorer agreement was observed in four sites (R-2 between 0.257 and 0.417), and intermediate values of R-2 (0.670 and 0.613) were obtained for two sites. The observed variation in the level of agreement between the Landsat and VGT estimates of burned area results from differences in the spatial pattern and size distribution of burns. Small and fragmented burned areas result in large underestimation at 1 km spatial resolution. When large and compact burned areas dominate the landscape, VGT estimates of burned area are accurate, although in certain situations there is some overestimation. Accuracy of VGT burned area estimates also depends on vegetation type. Results showed that in forest ecosystems VGT maps underestimate substantially the amount of burned area. An overall linear regression fitted with the data from the 13 comparison sites revealed that there is a strong relationship between VGT and Landsat estimates of burned area, with a value of R-2 of 0.754 and a slope of 0.803. Our findings indicate that burned area mapping based on 1 km spatial resolution VGT data provides adequate regional information.