Abstract

Sentinel-2 satellite images allow high separability for mapping burned and unburned areas. This problem has been extensively addressed using machine-learning algorithms. However, these need a suitable dataset and entail considerable training time. Recently, extreme learning machines (ELM) have presented high precision in classification and regression problems but with low computational cost. This paper proposes evaluating ELM to map burned areas and compare them with other machine-learning algorithms broadly used. Several indices, metrics and training times were used to assess the performance of the algorithms. Considering the average of datasets, the best performance was obtained by random forest (DICE = 0.93; omission and commission = 0.08) and ELM (DICE = 0.90; omission and commission = 0.07). The training time for the best model was from ELM (1.45 s) and logistic regression (1.85 s). According to results, ELM was the best burned-area classification algorithm, considering precision and training time, evidencing great potential to map burned areas at global scales with medium-high spatial resolution images. This information is essential to fire-risk systems and burned-area records used to design prevention and fire-combat strategies, and it provides valuable knowledge on the effect of fires on the landscape and atmosphere.