Forests

Characterize forest areas and assess fire risks

Vegetation mapping and species identification

Vegetation mapping by satellite image processing is a method used to study, analyze and map landscape vegetation. It is carried out using satellite images taken by sensors installed on orbiting satellites. These images are then processed to extract valuable information about the vegetation. Vegetation maps provide information on the state of vegetation and are important for climate change and biodiversity and conservation studies.

Detection and characterization of burned forest surface

Detecting areas burned by fires can be a valuable tool for insurance companies who can use fire detection technologies to help monitor high fire risk regions and better understand the cause of those fires. Remote sensing can also help insurance companies estimate the damage caused by fire and assess the amount of compensation.

Monitoring vegetation growth after a fire outbreak

After a fire episode, vegetation can be severely damaged and take years to grow and recover. Therefore, monitoring vegetation growth is essential after a fire to monitor the recovery process and subsequent environmental changes.

Detection and monitoring of burned areas by controlled pastoral fires

Directed pastoral fires (also called burning) is a very old agricultural practice, which aims to maintain and regenerate through fire the fodder resource for herds in pastoral areas during the period of vegetative rest of the vegetation (late autumn at the beginning of the winter). spring). Although this practice has undeniable positive effects on the fodder resource and on the maintenance of pastoral areas, it is nevertheless regulated by prefectural decree and may also be prohibited from time to time during the winter period as soon as the threshold for information and recommendation of levels of particles in suspension in the air is exceeded or that the meteorological conditions do not allow a good dispersion of this pollution.

Following a study subsidized by the Hautes-Pyrénées department in 2019 and carried out in partnership with the CRPGE (Resource Center on Pastoralism and Space Management), TerraNIS has developed an operational service for the detection of burning areas by satellite imagery. The main results obtained during this study have been published in the journal Pastum (link), the biannual journal of the Association Française de Pastoralisme. Since then, several departments of Occitanie have been covered with this service which gives a vision of the spatial and temporal distribution of the practice of burning.