Correcting the Fire Scar Perimeter of a 1983 Wildfire Using USGS-Archived Landsat Satellite Data

In July 1983, a large wildfire occurred on the island of Karpathos in Greece. However, only a general sketch of the burn perimeter was available and this lacked detailed spatial information, particularly for unburned patches within the fire scar perimeter. A study was undertaken to correctly map the area burned using USGS-archived Landsat data by applying several digital image processing techniques. This paper summarizes and discusses the main findings of that study and provides some general recommendations on the use of remote sensing and archived Landsat data for reconstructing fire history. Remote sensing along with geographic information systems can provide an excellent framework for fast, reliable data capture, measurement, and synthesis, all of which are essential for thorough eco-environmental analysis. Satellite data of multiple types offer an unlimited source of information due to their rich spectral and spatial information content. Satellite mapping of burned areas is considered a standard technique in creating maps of fire scars at multiple scales as a function of the satellite sensor's geometric resolution.