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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Climate change has intensified the need for robust fire prevention strategies. Sustainableforest fuel management is crucial in mitigating the occurrence and rapid spread of forest fires. Thisstudy assessed the impact of vegetation clearing and/or grazing over a three-year period in theherbaceous and shrub parts of a Mediterranean oak forest. Using high-resolution multispectral datafrom an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), four flight surveys were conducted from 2019 (pre- and post-clearing) to 2021. These data were used to evaluate different scenarios: combined vegetation clearingand grazing, the individual application of each method, and a control scenario that was neithercleared nor purposely grazed. The UAV data allowed for the detailed monitoring of vegetationdynamics, enabling the classification into arboreal, shrubs, herbaceous, and soil categories. Grazingpressure was estimated through GPS collars on the sheep flock. Additionally, a good correlation(r = 0.91) was observed between UAV-derived vegetation volume estimates and field measurements.These practices proved to be efficient in fuel management, with cleared and grazed areas showing alower vegetation regrowth, followed by areas only subjected to vegetation clearing. On the otherhand, areas not subjected to any of these treatments presented rapid vegetation growth.
Description
Keywords
Remote sensing Unmanned aerial vehicles Grazing monitoring Forest management Normalized difference vegetation index Land use Land cover change Wildfire prevention
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Pádua, Luís; Castro, João Paulo; Castro, José; Sousa, Joaquim J.; Castro, Marina (2024). Assessing the Impact of Clearing and Grazing on Fuel Management in a Mediterranean Oak Forest through Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Multispectral Data. Drones. eISSN 2504-446X. 8:8, p. 1-19
Publisher
MDPI