Monitoring the landscape stability of Mediterranean vegetation relation to fire with a fractal algorithm

Abstract

Abstract. Mediterranean landscapes are characterized by a high stability to ® re due to the rapid regeneration of the pre-existing spatial relation among the distinctive patches. This is manifested by a rapid vegetation regrowth after the ® re. The post- ® re dynamics of vegetation regrowth can be monitored using remotely sensed data. The aim of this paper is to introduce a method to quantitat-ively estimate the dynamics of post- ® re recovery of Mediterranean landscapes based on a multitemporal analysis of the biomass local variability derived from remotely sensed data. The ability of this method to distinguish remotely sensed texture variations in biomass data made it appropriate to the monitoring of post-® re landscape structural changes in Mediterranean areas at a Landsat TM scale. 1.