Modelling canopy fuel and forest stand variables and characterizing the influence of thinning in the stand structure using airborne LiDAR

Los incendios forestales suponen una gran amenaza en el NO de Espana. La importancia y frecuencia de estos eventos en la zona sugiere la necesidad de programas de gestion del combustible para reducir la propagacion y severidad de los incendios. La realizacion de una selvicultura de claras puede contribuir a la reduccion del riesgo de incendio, ya que ocasiona una ruptura de la continuidad horizontal del combustible forestal. Ademas, es necesario realizar una gestion del riesgo de incendio basada en el conocimiento de la localizacion del combustible sobre el terreno, puesto que el estudio del comportamiento de un incendio y la simulacion de la propagacion del fuego son dependientes del factor espacial. Por ello, resulta esencial la generacion de mapas del combustible para diferentes escenarios selvicolas. La elaboracion de modelos de estimacion de variables dasometricas y de estructura de la masa a partir de tecnologia LiDAR es el punto de inicio para la elaboracion de una cartografia espacialmente explicita. Esto adquiere mayor valor en los mapas de combustible puesto que la medicion de las variables en campo resulta inviable. En el presente estudio, evaluamos el potencial de la tecnologia LiDAR para estimar variables del combustible de copa y otras variables de masa, asi como para identificar diferencias estructurales a nivel de rodal en masas de Pinus inaster Ait. con y sin manejo selvicola. Las variables independientes (metricas LiDAR) de mayor importancia explicativa fueron identificadas y los analisis de regresion indicaron fuertes relaciones entre estas y las ariables medidas en campo ( R 2  vario entre 0.86 y 0.97). Por otra parte, se observaron diferencias significativas en algunas metricas LiDAR cuando se compararon masas aclaradas y no aclaradas. Los resultados demostraron que la tecnologia LiDAR permite la modelizacion de variables de masa y de combustible de copa con alta precision en esta especie, y que proporciona informacion util para la identificacion de areas con y sin gestion selvicola.

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