NSW Post-fire Biomass Recovery Monitoring by Remote Sensing

Observational monitoring of post-fire biomass recovery at the landscape scale is important to help us understand drivers of recovery processes, identify vulnerable ecosystems and prioritise management interventions to support ecological resilience. Following the extreme bushfire season of 2019–20, there is considerable concern from land managers and researchers regarding the pressure these fires have imparted on ecological resilience at a landscape scale, particularly due to short inter-fire intervals.

Remote sensing scientists from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s (hereafter the department’s) Science and Insights Division have developed the NSW Post-fire Biomass Recovery Monitoring system. By mapping post-fire change in a satellite-based spectral reflectance index, the method can be used to monitor the change in the amount and greenness of vegetation cover following fires that have been previously mapped through the NSW fire extent and severity mapping (FESM) system.

NSW post-fire biomass recovery monitoring data is available for 1, 2 and 3 years following the black summer of 2019–20.