A Remote Sensing Assessment of Tornado Induced Damage and Forest Recovery at Land Between the Lakes
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Freshmen
Major
Geology
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Cetin
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
The purpose of this study was to find the extent of the damage in northern Land Between the Lakes (LBL) caused by the December 2021 Tornado, using satellite imagery and remote sensing techniques. Landsat 8 imagery was used to calculate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR). With these values dNBR and dNDVI, as well as regrowth rates for the years post tornado were calculated in ArcGIS Pro. The results showed that the tornado NDVI values dropped from 0.77 to 0.40 in the tornado path Area of Interest (AOI) (48% drop). The control also showed a drop from an NDVI of 0.79 to 0.51(35% drop). This was likely caused by severe damage, as well as drought conditions. The monthly precipitation for June totaled only 1.47 inches, a substantially lower number than other months analyzed in subsequent years. Using dNBR helped confirm the forest disturbance showing a correlation of 0.588 in the AOI. Using the 2022 NDVI for a baseline then the regrowth for each subsequent year was calculated. In 2023 74.7% of vegetation recovered, in 2024 112.6% recovered exceeding numbers from 2020, and in 2025 117.4% recovered. This showed a strong positive trend. These results showed that while the tornado caused substantial damage it was amplified by severe drought conditions in 2022. It also showed that once the forest began to recover it did so rapidly, even exceeding the original NDVI values in 2024. This shows a strong resilience to disturbance in this forest. This study highlighted the effectiveness of remote sensing and how it could show recovery and disturbances as well as ecosystem response to other environmental factors such as drought.
Spring Scholars Week 2026
Sigma Xi Poster Competition
A Remote Sensing Assessment of Tornado Induced Damage and Forest Recovery at Land Between the Lakes
The purpose of this study was to find the extent of the damage in northern Land Between the Lakes (LBL) caused by the December 2021 Tornado, using satellite imagery and remote sensing techniques. Landsat 8 imagery was used to calculate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR). With these values dNBR and dNDVI, as well as regrowth rates for the years post tornado were calculated in ArcGIS Pro. The results showed that the tornado NDVI values dropped from 0.77 to 0.40 in the tornado path Area of Interest (AOI) (48% drop). The control also showed a drop from an NDVI of 0.79 to 0.51(35% drop). This was likely caused by severe damage, as well as drought conditions. The monthly precipitation for June totaled only 1.47 inches, a substantially lower number than other months analyzed in subsequent years. Using dNBR helped confirm the forest disturbance showing a correlation of 0.588 in the AOI. Using the 2022 NDVI for a baseline then the regrowth for each subsequent year was calculated. In 2023 74.7% of vegetation recovered, in 2024 112.6% recovered exceeding numbers from 2020, and in 2025 117.4% recovered. This showed a strong positive trend. These results showed that while the tornado caused substantial damage it was amplified by severe drought conditions in 2022. It also showed that once the forest began to recover it did so rapidly, even exceeding the original NDVI values in 2024. This shows a strong resilience to disturbance in this forest. This study highlighted the effectiveness of remote sensing and how it could show recovery and disturbances as well as ecosystem response to other environmental factors such as drought.