Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
Progress Projects and related activities are grouped into four categories: Programmatic Activities (14) Systems Development (17) Fire, Fuels, and Technology Products and Services (28) Incident Support (34) The total is 93 separate projects and activities, with considerable direct support to incidents in the field.
Impacts
The Fire Center has implemented a series of fire decision support systems that directly affect fire and fuels management. The MT/ID Airshed Monitoring application, for example, tracks and reports on all prescribed burns that occur in the 2-state area. The Smokejumper "Master Action" System is an on-line resource tracking system that keeps a daily log of all smokejumper activity across the U.S. We have also recently completed an historical fire atlas for Glacier National Park. This desktop computer mapping system is a transactional record keeping system that tracks all fires and fuel management activities that have occurred in the Park. In addition, the Center has formed and mobilized a "Fire Intelligence Module." This Module, consisting of 2-6 Fire Center staff, is a nationally available resource that can be ordered by a fire management team to support Wildland Fire Use incidents. The Module has been deployed to over 50 individual fire incidents in the previous two
fire seasons.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
Our work during 2003 included six studies that fell into three groups; 1) Linking GIS to WFSA, 2) Analysis of Ecological Condition as a Result of Alternative Fuel Treatment Strategies, and 3) Fire Severity Mapping. The purpose of the first project is to develop a customized GIS application that is able to generate the map sets that are a part of the text based Wildland Fire Situation Analysis (WFSA). The application will be developed using ARCMap in version 8.1 yet compatible with ArcView 3.2. Data management, documentation, and ingest functions and requirements will also be specified. So far we have developed a custom marker palatte since some of the pen symbols were of poor quality, difficult to work with, or slightly different in ArcView 3.2 than in the fireline handbook. In addition, we added a symbol to represent coincident branch/division breaks and the option to colorlock the symbols to the colors specified in the fireline handbook. Further programming could be
undertaken to make the palettes more efficient and dynamic in its use. The second project will integrate GIS and simulation modeling to assess the long-term ecological effects of alternative treatment strategies. The individual strategies will take different approaches towards meeting restoration goals. Ecological condition and current land management policy will be used to differentiate between strategies. Ecological condition and simulated disturbance processes over time will serve as the metrics for analysis. In the third project a remote sensing based assessment of wildland and wildland fire use in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem will be conducted. Fire severity will be determined using the Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (DNBR). The landscape that is encompassed by the boundaries of the Ecosystem, as reported by the USDA Forest Service, will then be stratified into zones determined by the biophysical setting variables of slope, aspect, elevation, and potential vegetation.
A descriptive analysis of the proportions of the landscape that fall within each severity class will be given to answer the question of whether biophysical setting has a significant effect on fire severity. An attempt will be made through multiple regression analysis to model and predict fire severity using biophysical setting parameters. The study also involves a cross-comparison of the burn severity map produced by the USFS Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) Team and the rapid assessment DNBR map to examine the degree of departure between the two methods. It will also look at the relationship between stand treatments and the observed pattern of severity by treatment. For the purpose of comparison a control group of untreated stands will be selected and the same assessment will be carried out.
Impacts
As this collaborative project integrates modern technologies into everyday tools, managers will have an easier time planning, assessing, suppressing, and rehabilitating the land where fire is a recurring process on the landscape. These projects are the foundations of a lasting commitment, on the part of the Fire Center, to uncover and acknowledge the needs of land managers in the years to come.
Publications
- Seielstad, C.A. and L.P. Queen. 2003. Using Airborne Laser Altimetry to Determine Fuel Models for Estimating Fire behavior. Journal of Forestry 101(4):10-17.
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
Our work during 2001 included six studies that fell into three groups; 1) Linking GIS to WFSA, 2) Analysis of Ecological Condition as a Result of Alternative Fuel Treatment Strategies, and 3) Fire Severity Mapping. The purpose of the first project is to develop a customized GIS application that is able to generate the map sets that are a part of the text based Wildland Fire Situation Analysis (WFSA). The application will be developed using ARCMap in version 8.1 yet compatible with ArcView 3.2. Data management, documentation, and ingest functions and requirements will also be specified. So far we have developed a custom marker palatte since some of the pen symbols were of poor quality, difficult to work with, or slightly different in ArcView 3.2 than in the fireline handbook. In addition, we added a symbol to represent coincident branch/division breaks and the option to colorlock the symbols to the colors specified in the fireline handbook. Further programming could be
undertaken to make the palettes more efficient and dynamic in its use. The second project will integrate GIS and simulation modeling to assess the long-term ecological effects of alternative treatment strategies. The individual strategies will take different approaches towards meeting restoration goals. Ecological condition and current land management policy will be used to differentiate between strategies. Ecological condition and simulated disturbance processes over time will serve as the metrics for analysis. In the third project a remote sensing based assessment of the Valley Complex (VC) of 2000 will be conducted. Fire severity will be determined using the Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (DNBR). The landscape that is encompassed by the boundaries of the Valley Complex, as reported by the USDA Forest Service, will then be stratified into zones determined by the biophysical setting variables of slope, aspect, elevation, and potential vegetation. A descriptive analysis of the
proportions of the landscape that fall within each severity class will be given to answer the question of whether biophysical setting has a significant effect on fire severity. An attempt will be made through multiple regression analysis to model and predict fire severity using biophysical setting parameters. The study also involves a cross-comparison of the burn severity map produced by the USFS Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) Team and the rapid assessment DNBR map to examine the degree of departure between the two methods. It will also look at the relationship between stand treatments and the observed pattern of severity by treatment. For the purpose of comparison a control group of untreated stands will be selected and the same assessment will be carried out.
Impacts
As this collaborative project integrates modern technologies into everyday tools, managers will have an easier time planning, assessing, suppressing, and rehabilitating the land where fire is a recurring process on the landscape. These projects are the foundations of a lasting commitment, on the part of the Fire Center, to uncover and acknowledge the needs of land managers in the years to come.
Publications
- Seielstad, C.A., and Queen, L.P. Using Airborne Laser Altimetry to Determine Fuel Models for Estimating Fire behavior. 2003. Journal of Forestry 101(4):10-17.
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Progress 01/01/01 to 12/31/01
Outputs
Our work during 2001 included six studies that fell into three groups; 1) Linking GIS to WFSA, 2) Analysis of Ecological Condition as a Result of Alternative Fuel Treatment Strategies, and 3) Fire Severity Mapping. The purpose of the first project is to develop a customized GIS application that is able to generate the map sets that are a part of the text based Wildland Fire Situation Analysis (WFSA). The application will be developed using ARCMap in version 8.1 yet compatible with ArcView 3.2. Data management, documentation, and ingest functions and requirements will also be specified. So far we have developed a custom marker palatte since some of the pen symbols were of poor quality, difficult to work with, or slightly different in ArcView 3.2 than in the fireline handbook. In addition, we added a symbol to represent coincident branch/division breaks and the option to colorlock the symbols to the colors specified in the fireline handbook. Further programming could be
undertaken to make the palettes more efficient and dynamic in its use. The second project will integrate GIS and simulation modeling to assess the long-term ecological effects of alternative treatment strategies. The individual strategies will take different approaches towards meeting restoration goals. Ecological condition and current land management policy will be used to differentiate between strategies. Ecological condition and simulated disturbance processes over time will serve as the metrics for analysis. In the third project a remote sensing based assessment of the Valley Complex (VC) of 2000 will be conducted. Fire severity will be determined using the Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (DNBR). The landscape that is encompassed by the boundaries of the Valley Complex, as reported by the USDA Forest Service, will then be stratified into zones determined by the biophysical setting variables of slope, aspect, elevation, and potential vegetation. A descriptive analysis of the
proportions of the landscape that fall within each severity class will be given to answer the question of whether biophysical setting has a significant effect on fire severity. An attempt will be made through multiple regression analysis to model and predict fire severity using biophysical setting parameters. The study also involves a cross-comparison of the burn severity map produced by the USFS Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) Team and the rapid assessment DNBR map to examine the degree of departure between the two methods. It will also look at the relationship between stand treatments and the observed pattern of severity by treatment. For the purpose of comparison a control group of untreated stands will be selected and the same assessment will be carried out.
Impacts
As this collaborative project integrates modern technologies into everyday tools, managers will have an easier time planning, assessing, suppressing, and rehabilitating the land where fire is a recurring process on the landscape. These projects are the foundations of a lasting commitment, on the part of the Fire Center, to uncover and acknowledge the needs of land managers in the years to come.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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