Using object‐oriented classification and high‐resolution imagery to map fuel types in a Mediterranean region

Knowledge of fuel load and composition is critical in fighting, preventing, and understanding wildfires. Commonly, the generation of fuel maps from remotely sensed imagery has made use of medium‐resolution sensors such as Landsat. This paper presents a methodology to generate fuel type maps from high spatial resolution satellite data through object‐oriented classification. Fuel maps were derived from QuickBird imagery, which offers a panchromatic and four multispectral bands ranging from 0.61 to 2.44 m resolution. The image used for this paper dated from July 2002 and is located in the NW region of Madrid, Spain. The Prometheus system, a fuel type classification adapted to the ecological characteristics of the European Mediterranean basin, was adopted for this study. Viewed with high‐resolution imagery, fuel‐related features are often aggregations of pixels exhibiting a variety of spectral properties. Correct identification and classification of these objects requires an explicit consideration of spatial context. We used an object‐oriented approach, which allowed context consideration during the classification process, as a complement to traditional pixel‐based methods. The map created with this approach was assessed to have greater than 80% accuracy for the prediction of six fuel classes. Results suggested that object‐oriented classification of high‐resolution imagery has the potential to create accurate and spatially precise fuel maps.