Modis detected fire pixels
Introduction
The lockdown measure enacted in Brazil and Mexico may have an impact on conservation for a wide range of reasons. Tropical forest clearing always involves fire. It is therefore easily detected through MODIS derived fire monitoring products. However, the majority of tropical fires are associated with the maintenance of pre-existing pasture through burning to prevent the regeneration of shrubs and trees and promote the growth of fresh grass. This usually takes place at the end of the dry season. The maps enable new areas that are being opened up for agriculture through forest clearance to be distinguished from pre-cleared areas by comparing the areas burned in the past with those burned in 2020.
Code is not shown here as it runs on a server connected to a postgis data base holding the data obtained from ftp://fuoco.geog.umd.edu/modis/
Amazon and Chiapas
Amazon
Boxplot
Map
The map shows kernel densities for 2014, 2019 and 2020 plus the protected areas from the world data base of protected areas. Switch the layers on and off using the control to explore in detail. Kernel densities have been used as the number of raw points are large and slow the visualisation. The use of a kernel density may suggest some areas on the margins of the burned area are affected even though they may have actually been unburned. However the overall spatial pattern is maintained. If viewing this file in rpubs open the map in a new window (right click on the map fullscreen icon) in order to allow full screen viewing and exploration.