A multisensor and multitemporal approach to assess wildfire occurrence and landscape dynamics on Marsden Moor Estate, West Yorkshire

The Marsden Moor Estate owned by the National Trust in West Yorkshire, UK is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (JNCC, 2021). Since 2019, the National Trust reported a total of £700,000 worth of damage caused by wildfires at Marsden Moor (National Trust, 2021).
This paper presents a multisensor and multitemporal approach to monitor wildfire occurrence in an upland peatland. The research assesses the impact of wildfire events and the landscape dynamics during 2019 - 2021. We examined (a) the hydrological/ topographic characteristics of the estate and (b) the dynamics of vegetation conditions. The hydrological/ topographic assessment used LiDAR derived products for obtaining slope, aspect and Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) (Beven and Kirkby, 1979). TWI was important in spatially mapping drier v's wetter areas across the peatland, with drier areas indicating areas of degradation. Previous to this work, there was no multitemporal analysis of vegetation condition or regular mapping of bare ground for the estate. Sentinel-1/-2 and Vision-1 data were used to quantify the total area burnt and landscape dynamics.
This research is part of the NERC funded project “Towards a UK fire danger rating system: Understanding fuels, fire behaviour and impacts” (https://ukfdrs.com/). Work package 1.2 focuses on the development of a dynamic fuel map based on seasonal change and land cover management in the South Pennines, England. This research provides some initial investigation of wildfire occurrence and landscape dynamics for the Marsden Moor Estate, West Yorkshire.