Ground truth survey in SpainD. Caballero

ArcFuel WorkshopThessaloniki 2013

Spanish study area

• Provinces of Córdoba and Málaga, Andalucía, Spain

• Córdoba is one of the largest provinces in Spain.

• Both hold forestlands in a rough terrain, shrublands and agricultural lands

Spanish study area

Survey points

• LUCAS points (P)• Alternative points (ALT)• Complementary points (PC)• Other review activity (Fotos)

Survey points

Method

• Geo-tagged pictures• Recordings and annotations for every

photo set• GPS antenna linked (BT) to tablet with

OruxMaps and Google Earth (cached)• Taken 8 pics (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW),

Upslope, Dwnslope, Canopy, Ground• Extra pictures showing the environment

Navigation to survey points

Geo-One GPS receiver attached to a Nikon D7000 camera

Navigation to survey points

Difficulties• Private properties! Almost no access,

everything with fences!• Topography, very steep slopes• Vegetation: dense vegetation with thorns

(Ulex sp)• Hunting activty (specially at dusk), bullfighting

bulls• Winter time, short daylight hours• Look for alternative points, jump fences and a

lot of walking -> reduced performance

Survey - Spain

• Poor accessbility -> alternative points of the same structure

• A total of 56 points, 58 surveyed, one outside study area (Seville), one missing information

Survey - Spain

• 1 EG Broad Scrub 1• 2 EG Broad Open 5• 3 EG Broad Dense 4• 7 EG Conif Scrub 1• 15 EG Mix Dense 2• 19 Shrubs 30• 20 Grasses 5• 24 No fuel 4

ArcFuel Classification

• Classification of points according ArcFuel Map: depends on precision and resolution

• Complicated in highly fragmented fuels• Suggestion: adaptative resolution

(according fuel fragmentation)• Suggestion: use of LiDAR

Classification results

• Good for urban areas, it should be tested in dense intermix areas (i.e. North of Cordoba city)

• EG Broad Scrub vs. Open: no so clear the difference sometimes. Required data on height (LiDAR)

• In general good classifying dense forests

Classification results

• Missing EG Broad Dense for EG Conif Scrub (PC03A)

• Missing EG Conif Scrub for Shrub! (P4)• Missing Shrub for EG Broad Dense (PC05A)• Missing EG Conif Dense for Agrofor (P27)• Missing EG Mix Dense for EG Broad Dense

(PC38A, PC04A)

Classification results

• Good classifying shrubs (80%), but many different formations and structures included as shrubs (see comments) Missing Shrubs for Grasses, Shrubs for Agrofor -> abandoned lands PC10A, P35ALT, PC35A, P52ALT

• Missing Grasses for Shrubs, difficult to differenciate (shrub density) P45, P47ALT

Conclusions

• 34 points well classified (60%)• 3 points very badly classified, wrong or

inconsistent data sources• 8 points badly classified, difficult to

differentate heights, densities, species• 11 with reasonable classification,

particularly abandoned agro lands, outdated data sources (19%)

Conclusions

• Need for more information on shrubs• Design and apply a robust method to

classify shrubs in the understory• Use of temporal and thematically

consistent data sources• Use of LiDAR (where available) may help in

future classifications