Development of a Post-fire Monitoring Protocol for Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness
and Cheatgrass Abundance Using Quickbird Imagery and Ground Observations

The purpose of this study is to utilize cool and warm season Quickbird satellite imagery, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and field data to monitor treatment effectiveness and vegetative recovery within the Rattle Fire Complex Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Project. This study employed a “two pass approach” to understand treatment effectiveness and the distribution of cheatgrass. The “first-pass” approach used simple supervised classification techniques to map seven landcover types including cheatgrass monocultures and thus identified cheatgrass “hot-spots”. However, the post-treatment diversity resulted in a landcover class of mixed grasses and forbs characterized by myriad spectral signatures and phenologies. A simple linear regression model relating the cheatgrass cover linepoint intercept field data to the remotely sensed NDVI was successful in mapping continuous cheatgrass cover (R²=0.75). The results of this study show that relatively simple methods can be used to monitor treatment effectiveness on large projects using satellite imagery and minimal ground data.