Spatially Refined Biomass and Combustion Efficiency Estimations in Support of Forest Fires Emissions Quantification

Frequency and intensity of fires are increasing due to climate change. Devastating fires like the megafires occurring in Chile in 2017 are the new normal in fire-prone areas. The native schlerophyll forest in Chile was the ecosystem most affected by the 2017 fires. This study presented an approach to improve the estimation of GHG emissions from biomass burning in the native schlerophyll forest of Chile. Biomass estimation was improved by using field work data to fill the gap of knowledge about the species distribution, and number and size of trees. The combustion completeness factor was adapted using the burned severity estimations generated from the dNBR calculation on Sentinel-2 data. Our results show that by adapting the parameters to the specific conditions of the affected ecosystem the emission estimations become more accurate.