Fire Burn Severity - Historical

This layer is the one-year-later burn severity classification for large fires (greater than 100 ha). Burn severity mapping is conducted using best available pre- and post-fire satellite multispectral imagery acquired by the MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) aboard the Sentinel-2 satellite or the Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor aboard the Landsat-8 and 9 satellites. The post-fire imagery is acquired during the subsequent growing season. Mapping conducted during the subsequent growing season benefits from greater post-fire image availability and is expected to be more representative of tree mortality. Every attempt is made to use cloud, smoke, shadow and snow-free imagery that was acquired prior to September 30th.

Please note, this layer is 1-year-later burn severity dataset. The same-year burn severity mapping dataset (WHSE_FOREST_VEGETATION.VEG_BURN_SEVERITY_SAME_YR_SP) is considered an interim product to this layer.

Methodology:

• Select suitable pre- and post-fire imagery or create a cloud/snow/smoke-free composite from multiple images scenes

• Calculate normalized burn severity ratio (NBR) for pre- and post-fire images

• Calculate difference NBR (dNBR) where dNBR = pre NBR – post NBR

• Apply a scaling equation (dNBR_scaled = dNBR*1000 + 275)/5)

• Apply BARC thresholds (76, 110, 187) to create a 4-class image (unburned, low severity, medium severity, and high severity)

• Apply region-based filters to reduce noise

• Confirm burn severity analysis results through visual quality control

• Produce a vector dataset and apply Euclidian distance smoothing

Datasets available for download

• WMS getCapabilities requestWMS
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• BC Geographic Warehouse Custom Downloadmultiple
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• Find the data and maps for multiple yearsmultiple
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• Burn Severity
• Fire
• Fire Impact
• Fire Severity
• Wildfire
• burn
• burned
• disturbance
• fire perimeters
• fire polygon

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (46%)
• Maturity Level 2 (38%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 19, 2025, 23:23 (UTC)
Created	October 19, 2025, 23:23 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	Fire Burn Severity - Historical
Description A description of the dataset.	This layer is the one-year-later burn severity classification for large fires (greater than 100 ha). Burn severity mapping is conducted using best available pre- and post-fire satellite multispectral imagery acquired by the MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) aboard the Sentinel-2 satellite or the Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor aboard the Landsat-8 and 9 satellites. The post-fire imagery is acquired during the subsequent growing season. Mapping conducted during the subsequent growing season benefits from greater post-fire image availability and is expected to be more representative of tree mortality. Every attempt is made to use cloud, smoke, shadow and snow-free imagery that was acquired prior to September 30th. Please note, this layer is 1-year-later burn severity dataset. The same-year burn severity mapping dataset (WHSE_FOREST_VEGETATION.VEG_BURN_SEVERITY_SAME_YR_SP) is considered an interim product to this layer. Methodology: • Select suitable pre- and post-fire imagery or create a cloud/snow/smoke-free composite from multiple images scenes • Calculate normalized burn severity ratio (NBR) for pre- and post-fire images • Calculate difference NBR (dNBR) where dNBR = pre NBR – post NBR • Apply a scaling equation (dNBR_scaled = dNBR*1000 + 275)/5) • Apply BARC thresholds (76, 110, 187) to create a 4-class image (unburned, low severity, medium severity, and high severity) • Apply region-based filters to reduce noise • Confirm burn severity analysis results through visual quality control • Produce a vector dataset and apply Euclidian distance smoothing
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Burn Severity Fire Fire Impact Fire Severity Wildfire burn burned disturbance fire perimeters fire polygon
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2018-06-13
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Access Only
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fire-burn-severity-historical
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?	Marc Rousseau
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?	[email protected]
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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