Use of low cost Landsat ETM+ to spot burnt villages in Darfur, Sudan

A change detection analysis of Landsat ETM+ data from the conflict‐affected area of Darfur Province in Sudan demonstrates that the recent (2003–2004) widespread burning of villages can be mapped with high accuracy (98.5% producer accuracy) at a much lower cost than other methods. By comparing albedo from two images with a 1 year interval, it was found that approximately half of the 352 survey villages had a decreased reflection pattern that could be linked to being burnt. The analysis found albedo more stable as a burnt village indicator than the use of Landsat bands 4 and 7 and the normalized burn ratio. The method is very cost effective and permits the large scale monitoring of certain types of human rights abuse, such as scorched‐earth tactics.