Exurban change detection in fire-prone areas with nighttime satellite imagery

Fire-prone landscapes ore increasingly being settled. Monitoring this development is an emerging need, and a low-cost method would benefit emergency managers. Existing change-detection methods can be expensive and time consuming when applied to low-density urban change in large, vegetated areas. Nighttime satellite imagery is explored as means for addressing this problem, and a case study is presented for Colorado. The results indicate that from 1992-2000, Grand County had the greatest absolute increase in ambient sprawl into fire-prone areas (215 km(2)), but Teller County had the greatest percentage increase (7.3 percent). In 2000, La Plata County had the most ambient development in fire-prone areas (909 km(2)), but Jefferson County had the greatest percentage (42 percent). The paper concludes, with a discussion of the prospects and problems of the approach.