IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine | 2021
Satellite-Based Analysis of Forest Fires in the Bolivian Chiquitania and Amazon Region: Case 2019
Abstract
In the penultimate quarter of 2019, Bolivia suffered multiple forest fires in the Chiquitania and the Amazon region. According to experts and authorities, a category six wildfire, consumed at a rate of 4000 hectares per hour. Given this event, this article aims to use Landsat 8 satellite imagery to calculate the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), the Normalized Burn Ratio-Thermal (NBR-T), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) to categorize the environmental impact of the wildfires. These four indices were extracted from 22 postfire images, and it was found that the total burned area, in Beni department, that belongs to the Amazon region is 1183 134 hectares and the total burned area, in the municipalities that are inside or cross the Chiquitania is 3 825 359 hectares.