Translating GEDI Footprints Into Continuous Maps to Characterize Fuels, Severity, and Recovery Trends Across California Wildfires

PI: Matthew Clark School or Division: School of Social Sciences Sponsor: Arizona Board of Regents For and On Behalf of Northern Arizona University National Aeronautics & Space Administration Calendar Start & End Date: February 2024 - February 2027 Funding Amount: $99,196

Despite the role of wildfire in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function, recent trends are toward large-extent, high-severity wildfires in California. The wildfire research and management communities need better data on forest fuel distributions to better predict wildfire impacts and guide management strategies. We will address this pressing need by conducting a multi-part analysis of large wildfires in California using contemporary information on forest structure measured by NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) space-based lidar. This project has three objectives: 1) use GEDI to improve existing satellite-based wildfire severity maps, 2) compare quantity and quality of canopy fuels driving wildfire severity, and 3) use map forest structure to characterize pyrodiversity in landscape recovery.