The Interagency Fire Community: Available Tools, Data, and Collaborative Opportunities

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The Interagency Fire Community Available Tools,
Data, and Collaborative Opportunities
Nate Benson National Park Service Fire Ecology
Program Lead
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Annual Number of Wildfire Acres Nationally
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NPS Fire Management Accomplishments
Acres
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dNBR 09/12/1999 - 09/09/2001
NPS- USGS National Burn Severity Mapping Project
Initial Assessment 2001 Moose Burn
ETM 09/09/2001
Preliminary Severity Levels
http//burnseverity.cr.usgs.gov
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NPS/USGS National Burn Severity Mapping Project
3-Part Working Group
NPS and USGS BRD Research and Development,
Coordination, Oversight - 2-3 Individuals
NPS Field Personnel Distributed
throughout the Nation Fire Monitors,
Fire Ecologists, Fire GIS Specialists.
USGS EROS Satellite Remote Sensing Production
Facility with National Capability - 2-5
Individuals
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Landsat False Color Composites (Band 7-4-3 RGB)
Post Fire
Pre Fire
1999 Anaconda Burn
ETM 06/25/2000
TM 07/10/1999
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Normalized Burn Ratio NBR (R4 - R7) /
(R4 R7) Range -1.0 to 1.0
Differenced or Delta NBR dNBR NBRpre
NBRpost Range -2.0 to 2.0
Pre-Fire NBR 07/10/99
Post-Fire NBR 06/25/00
dNBR 07/10/99 - 06/25/00
1999 Anaconda Burn
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dNBR 07/10/99 - 06/25/00
Burn Perimeter Mapped
Burn Data Extracted by Perimeter
Burn Severity Levels or Classes
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1999 Anaconda Burn Within-Burn Frequency
Distribution of Severity
Low
32.2
8
32
7
28
Unburned/ Very Low
6
24
Moderate-Low
20.1
19.0
5
20
Percent Severity Levels
Moderate-High
Percent Increments of 30
15.7
4
16
High
12.1
3
12
2
8
Enhanced
Low
High
1
4
0.8
0.1
0
0
1080
960
840
720
600
480
360
240
120
0
-120
-240
dNBR
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Glacier National Park Extended Assessment 1994
Fires.
dNBR May 1994 May 1995
Burn Severity Levels
Severity Level
Starvation Burn
Adair Complex
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NPS Burn Mapping 2004
Fifty Fires Processed January 2004 November
2004 12 Initial Assessments and 38 Extended
Assessment 47 for NPS , 2 for FWS, 1 State of
Alaska Size 1 lt 100 acres 13 gt 100 and lt
500 5 gt 500 and lt 1000 8 gt 1000 and lt
2000 10 gt 2000 and lt 5000 4 gt 5000 and lt
10000 8 gt 10000 and lt 50000 1 gt 50000 (118330
ac AK)
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NPS Fire Atlases

• Yukon Charlie 20 scenes ordered and processed
  by NLAPS
• Scenes now in DDP for further processing (dNBR)
• Yosemite 42 scenes ordered and processed by
  NLAPS
• Scenes Atlas completed
• Yellowstone/Grand Teton/Bridger Teton 45 scenes
  ordered
• and processed by NLAPS atlas completed
• Sequoia Kings 31 scenes ordered and processed by
  NLAPS atlas completed
• Grand Canyon 23 Scenes ordered and processed by
  NLAPS
• Scenes sent to DDP for further processing
• Glacier Over 20 Scenes purchased atlas completed

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Fires from 1984 to 2003
Flathead National Forest Glacier National Park,
USA British Columbia Alberta, Canada
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Activities That Must Incorporate Spatial Burn
Severity Information
Fire Atlas past, present future burns
Account for results and acres treated Update
fuel, vegetation and FRCC data Education and
Visualization Archaeological Survey TE
Species conservation
Evaluate risks before fire Prescription
Planning Restore Natural Fire
Regimes Reduce Fuel Map Natural fire
breaks, Trigger points Fire Managmt.
Zones Assess hazards and ecology after fire
Restore protect mitigate damage Manage
People Air Quality Litigation Monitoring
What are the trends of severely burned acreages
by vegetation type on federal lands?
Research and modeling Fire behavior
fire-sensitive species fire-adapted
species disease fire history and
climate Provide control areas Test
management practices Develop and test
models
NFP Mandated Activities
Carl Key, USGS NRMSC
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http//burnseverity.cr.usgs.gov/
All NPS Fires gt 500 ac
Others by Request (e.g. DOI BAER Teams)
Yearly Fires Starting in 2000
Some Atlases
Extended Initial Assessments
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http//burnseverity.cr.usgs.gov/
Downloadable
Pre Post Landsat
dNBR
(Full-scene or Subset)
Fire Perimeters
Histogram, Metadata
Jpegs, Documentation
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Wildland Fire Leadership Council

• The Wildland Fire Leadship Council provides
  leadership and oversight to ensure policy
  coordination, accountability, and effective
  implementation of the National Fire Plan and the
  Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy.
• Question What are the trends of severely burned
  acreages by vegetation type on federal lands?

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Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS)

• ? Use Existing Landsat Data ? Wall-to-Wall
  Coverage ? 29 Year Trend

• Western Fires gt 1,000 Acres ? Eastern Fires gt 500
  Acres
• Approximately 8000 Landsat scenes to be
  purchased and made available

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An interagency, multi-disciplinary national
assessment of vegetation, fire fuels, and fire
regime conditions
http//www.landfire.gov
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LANDFIRE Objectives

• Develop nationally consistent 30m map data of
  vegetation, wildland fuels, and ecosystem fire
  regime conditions
• Provide the data to agency and field users for
  fire behavior simulation, fuel treatment
  planning, resource allocations, ecosystem
  restoration, and other environmental applications
• Develop methods to capture major ecosystem
  disturbances and keep baseline information up to
  date

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LANDscape and FIRE management system (since March
2002)
Vegetation Mapping By Satellite Ecological
modeling
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LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment

• ?Delivers a first-pass, coarse- to mid-scale
  assessment of fire regime conditions
• ?Moderately accurate but quickly delivered
• ?An interim product prior to delivery of LANDFIRE
  National products

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LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment Products

• Spatially explicit products
• ?Reference fire regimes
• ?Fire regime condition class
• ?Potential natural vegetation groups

Aspatial products ?Reference condition
models
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LANDFIRE

• Products delivered on an incremental basis

Western US FY 2006 Eastern US FY 2008 AK / HI FY
2009
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LANDFIRE is producing digital geospatial data
describing

• ?Existing vegetation composition and structure
• ?Fire effects models
• ?Fire behavior fuel models and canopy fuel
  characteristics
• ?Simulated historical fire regimes
• ?Fire regime condition class

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LANDFIRE products

• ?Created using consistent methods to ensure
  national relevance
• ?Created at a 30-meter resolution to ensure local
  relevancy
• ?Based on peer-reviewed science
• ?Created through a combination of plot-based
  data, Landsat imagery, and modeled data
• ?Disseminated via the USGS National Map

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Primary Deliverables (24 layers)

• Vegetation deliverables
• Environmental site potential and biophysical
  settings (a.k.a. potential vegetation)
• Existing vegetation cover types and structure
• Wildland fuel deliverables
• Fire behavior fuel models (e.g. Anderson fuel
  models)
• Canopy fuel layers (e.g. canopy bulk density)
• FRCC deliverables
• Ecosystem fire regime characteristics
• Landscape departure from reference conditions

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Secondary Deliverables

• Biophysical gradients
• 44 data layers of soils, climate, topography
• Vegetation succession models
• A series of vegetation succession descriptions
  developed based on VDDT model
• Field reference plot database
• Existing field plot data from many agencies and
  organizations
• New field plot data collected by LANDFIRE

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Deliverable Example Existing Vegetation Type

• ?Represents the vegetation currently present at a
  given site
• ?Generated using a predictive modeling approach
  that relates Landsat imagery and biophysical
  gradients to field-referenced data

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A conceptual LANDFIRE updating approach

• Capture major change regimes
• Wildland fire
• Removal of biomass (logging, etc.)
• Insect disease (if possible)

• 2. Update major LANDFIRE deliverables
• Updated existing vegetation trigger updating of
  fuel models
• Fire regime departure is updated in the same
  fashion

• 3. Project year 0 change to the next 9 years
• Require a robust vegetation growth model
• Potentially extrapolate to MODIS data products

4. Assume re-mapping LANDFIRE in the 10th year
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LANDFIRE Summary

• LANDFIRE currently concentrating on western
  United States scheduled to finish western US by
  end of 2006
• Currently conducting prototype efforts in eastern
  US and Alaska
• Rest of conterminous United States to be done by
  end of 2008
• Alaska/Hawaii done by end of 2009
• Currently starting research on methods to update
  LANDFIRE using existing resources

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What is FEAT? http//forum.spatialdynamics.com
FEAT is an integrated tabular and spatial
information system that supports data management
and analysis for monitoring and reporting of fire
effects.

• Resides on desktop server (MSDE) and supports
  field data collection with PDAs.
• Data analysis and report writing tools.
• Interface with ArcMap 9 desktop GIS.
• Includes interactive Protocol Manager.
• Supports FMH data collection protocols, Composite
  Burn Index, and others.

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What is FIREMON? http//www.fire.org
FIREMON is a fire effects monitoring package
that includes the following components

• Integrated sampling strategy.
• Sampling procedures.
• Microsoft Access database.
• Data analysis and report writing tools.

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What is FEAT-FIREMON Integrated? (FFI)
A multi-agency project, FFI integrates FEAT and
FIREMON into a single software tool.

• Supports monitoring for federal land management
  agencies at the field and research level.
• Fully scalable from the site level to the
  landscape level.
• Exchanges data with LANDFIRE, FRCC, and the Burn
  Severity (dNBR) Atlases.
• Supports other natural resource applications,
  such as satellite imagery classification,
  vegetation, aquatic habitat, fisheries, and
  wildlife monitoring.

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FFI is installed on one computer/server.
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FFI Modules

• Data Base
• GIS Module
• Data Analysis
• Protocol Manager
• PDA Module

FFI
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Joint Fire Science Program Overview

• Initiated by Congress in 1998
• JFSP focus research in support of fuel and fire
  management programs
• Joint effort between the Department of the
  Interior and the USDA Forest Service

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JFSP Focus Areas

• Fuels Inventory and Mapping
• Effects of Fuels Treatments
• Scheduling of Fuels Treatments
• Monitoring and Evaluation of Fuels Treatments
• Post-fire Stabilization and Rehabilitation
• Aircraft-based Remote Sensing
• Rapid Response Research
• Local Research Needs

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How Does JFSP Operate?

• JFSP is guided by a 10 person governing board 5
  from US Department of the Interior, 5 from US
  Forest Service
• The board sets annual priorities within the
  program framework
• Projects are typically funded through a
  competitive process
• JFSP Program Office at NIFC

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JFSP Investigations span the nation
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Topics for FY 2005 Funding

• Rapid Response Research on Wildland Fires
• Effects of previous land management activities or
  post-fire treatments
• Local Research Needs
• Meeting needs of managers to fill in knowledge
  gaps for science-based planning (Included
  post-fire salvage logging)
• Air Quality and Smoke
• Contributions of biomass burning to PM2.5, ozone,
  and visibility
• Methods to distinguish wild fire emissions from
  other sources.
• Social Science
• Effectiveness of state and local laws, policies,
  incentives on fire hazard abatement efforts.
• Effectiveness of fire science application
  efforts.
• Technology Transfer
• Extend TT beyond the conclusion of existing
  JFSP-funded projects.
• Information synthesis.
• Models and decision support systems.

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Program Accomplishments

• Over 270 research projects funded
• across the US
• Products include

Visit us at http//jfsp.nifc.gov
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NPS Fire Ecology Staff

• 22 park fire ecologists with field crews
• 7 regional and 3 national positions
• Park crews distributed based on prescribed fire
  and mechanical treatment work loads

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• Midwest Region Fire Ecology Program

• Staffing
• 4 Fire Ecologists and 5 Fire Effects
• Teams that serve 34 parks
• Border Waters Area 5 parks
• Indiana Dunes 3 parks
• Ozark Highlands 6 parks
• Northern Great Plains 11 Parks
• Tallgrass Prairie 9 Parks

• Primary work
• Monitor prescribed fire and mechanical
  treatment projects
• Support burn severity mapping
• Support fire management planning and operations
• Summarize and present data for managers
• Fires Primary Liaison with Natural Resources
  staff and research community

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Opportunities

• Share data and/or data collection
• Sponsor seasonal position(s) on NPS crews
• Buy additional pay periods for STF employees to
  do data analysis or planning
• Share permanent positions
• Support joint management of data
• Collaborate on research opportunities
• Other ideas..