Optimization of a random forest classifier for burned area detection in Chile using sentinel-2 data

Abstract

Due to the high variability of biomes throughout the country, the classification of burned areas is a challenge. We calibrated a random forest classifier to account for all this variability and ensure an accurate classification of burned areas. The classifier was optimized in three steps, generating a version of the burned area product in each step. According to the visual assessment, the final version of the BA product is more accurate than the perimeters created by the Chilean National Forest Corporation, which overestimate large burned areas because it does not consider the inner unburned areas and, it omits some small burned areas. The total burned surface from January to March 2017 was 5,000 km2 in Chile, 20 % of it belonging to a single burned area in the Maule Region, and with 91 % of the total burned surface distributed in 6 adjacent regions of Central Chile.