A Sampling Method for the Retrospective Validation of Global Burned Area Products

This work presents a design-based validation and calibration scheme for the Global Burned Area 2000 (GBA2000) maps. The objective of such a scheme is the assessment of the margins of uncertainty associated with the burned area maps and the estimation of the calibration coefficients for the conversion of the burned pixel counts into areal estimates. Due to the large areal extent of the thematic maps to be validated, the reference data is obtained from a sample of Landsat 7 ETM+ high resolution remotely sensed (RS) data. A novel sampling scheme, specifically designed for the calibration and validation of fire-related data, is adopted. The validation procedure involves: a) an intercalibration of the available maps (e.g. active fires and burned areas) which relies upon no reference data, b) the extraction of samples through a stratified random sampling and c) the use of accuracy metrics specifically selected for the validation of low resolution global thematic products. As an application of the proposed methodology, this paper presents some preliminary results of the validation process of a GBA2000 map over Africa.

BOSCHETTI Luigi;  EVA Hugh;  BRIVIO Alessandro;  GALLEGO PINILLA Francisco;  BARALDI Andrea;  GREGOIRE Jean-Marie; 

2006-09-15

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

JRC30924

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC30924,