Environmental Studies Seminar Series | Lightning Talks by ENVS Faculty

In person and via Zoom (Meeting ID: 978 5545 8946, Passcode: 454736). 

If you are unable to stream the talk live and need to access a recorded version, please contact Stacy Philpott at sphilpot@ucsc.edu. A UC Santa Cruz email address is required to access the recording.

Host: Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela

Speaker: Hannah Waterhouse

Speaker: Mijin Cha

Speaker: Bo Yang

• Title: Seeing Fire from Above: UAV Remote Sensing of Wildfire Behavior, Fuels, and Ecological Effects
• Abstract: Wildfires are highly dynamic events shaped by interactions among fuels, topography, weather, and vegetation. Three recent studies based on the California Canyon Fire Experiment, a highly instrumented prescribed fire conducted in a steep chaparral canyon near Salinas, California, demonstrate the potential of UAV remote sensing for wildfire research. Using thermal, multispectral, and LiDAR imagery, we developed methods to map fire progression, characterize fire anatomy, and improve the georeferencing of thermal imagery during an active fire. We also used UAV photogrammetry and object-based classification to quantify pre-fire fuel structure, post-fire fuel-height loss, and vegetation recovery. Finally, we linked remotely sensed thermal exposure,  including maximum temperature and heating duration, to field measurements of post-fire twig diameter as an indicator of fire severity. These studies demonstrate how UAV remote sensing can connect active-fire behavior with fuel conditions and ecological effects at fine spatial and temporal scales.