LiDAR Measurements for Wildfire Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Wildfire is a natural process required for ecosystem regeneration and succession, but has also become a significant threat to the stability, health and economy of communities affected by wildfire. Severe wildfire also has the potential to alter the successional trajectories of ecosystems that are sensitive to changes in hydrology and energy balance. Over the last 20-30 years, wildfires have burned increasingly large areas and it is predicted that the area burned by wildfire will double over the next 20-30 years as a result of drying climates. Therefore, there is a need to better understand the complex interactions associated with areas that are susceptible to wildfire, fuel accumulation, burn severity, pollution, and environmental mechanisms that make some ecosystems more sensitive to wildfire than others.

 Lidar is a useful remote sensing tool for understanding pre-fire ecosystem characteristics and post-fire changes associated with combustion because this technology measures the three-dimensional structure of vegetation and ground surface elevation. Data derivatives can then be linked to environmental drivers related to the spread of fire and burn severity, not easily observed using optical imagery.

 We would like authors to submit one or more articles on the following topics. Review articles and new ideas in addition to what is mentioned below with regards to use of lidar for studying wildfire are also welcome:

• Community infrastructure, uncertainty and community susceptibility to wildfire based on proximal fuel sources
• Lidar for measuring infrastructure loss
• Wildfire mitigation strategies using lidar
• Classifying and characterising fuel for wildfires
• Lidar-algorithm development for wildfire
• Pre- and post-fire biomass loss, carbon losses, and/or burn severity
• New indices using lidar intensity and/or structural attributes
• Lidar application to validate lower resolution remote sensing burn severity products
• Post-fire succession, ecosystem change and transition
• Development of additional 3D indicators related to scorched surfaces
• Terrestrial/airborne/spaceborne lidar applications for wildfire
• Use of lidar for wildfire landscape risk analysis
• Combined lidar and field or in situ measurements for understanding and spatializing fire behaviour potential in forests
• Development of lidar/optical/radar data fusion methods for wildfire
• Use of lidar for identifying post-fire structures including fallen and standing coarse woody debris
• Lidar/wildfire applications across a wide range of ecosystems

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• Lidar 
• Wildfire 
• Scaling 
• Ecosystem 
• Infrastructure 
• Fuel 
• Severity
• Biomass 
• Vegetation structure