Abstract
Wildfire is an increasingly prominent disturbance across forested landscapes in British Columbia, yet ecological responses and long-term vegetation recovery remain complex and spatially variable. This study investigates post-fire vegetation recovery following the 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire using Landsat-derived remote sensing data from 2015 to 2022. By analyzing the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) we assess vegetation change across four time periods: pre-fire, immediate post-fire, two years post-fire, and five years post-fire. Vegetation recovery was defined as achieving at least 80% of pre-fire index values by 2022. Findings indicate that substantial portions of the burn scar remained below it five years after the fire. Slower recovery was often associated with higher initial burn severity, elevation, and climatic conditions. The use of remote sensing offers a unique advantage by enabling consistent, landscape-scale monitoring especially in remote or inaccessible areas while Landsat’s 30-meter spatial resolution facilitates the detection of fine-scale recovery patterns across heterogeneous terrain. These results underscore the importance of multi-temporal satellite imagery in evaluating ecosystem resilience and identifying areas that may benefit from targeted restoration efforts in the context of more frequent and severe wildfires.
MGEM Student: Yunyi Du
Key words: wildfire recovery
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Du, Yunyi, 2025, “Tracking Forest Recovery: Early Indicators of Forest Regeneration Following the 2017 Elephant Hill Wildfire in British Columbia, Canada“, https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/VXF61T, Borealis, V1