37 Keeping Communities Safe Today, the questions can now be answered using maps, geospatial analytics, and the power of collaboration. Drawing the Lines That Contain Fires Chris Dunn and colleagues from the US Forest Service’s Wildfire Risk Management Science Team at the Rocky Mountain Research Station are now using sophisticated mapping to give fire planners the information they need ahead of time. These tools are helping firefighters and communities come together to successfully manage fires. The map-centric framework the team codeveloped is known as PODs (Potential Operational Delineations). PODs are areas on a map whose border lines are human-made or natural firestopping boundaries such as roads, ridges, and water. PODs can range in size from a few hundred to thousands of acres. “The real benefit of this is engaging people in fire management and getting them thinking about their place, within the context of how fires burn.” — Chris Dunn, assistant professor, College of Forestry, Oregon State University These seemingly simple boundaries are built on a wealth of data. To create PODs, planners examine and divide the landscape for fire management, considering geographic features rather than property lines. Wherever a fire starts, a shared map shows which POD it’s inside of and therefore the best places and opportunities to stop it. The Data Behind the Maps PODs are built using GIS technology, sophisticated mapping software that enables unlimited information about the relevant landscape to be included and analyzed. Dunn first encountered GIS in the 1990s as an undergraduate. He realized that since fires occur in space and time, GIS technology could help him better understand and respond to them. He took one of the earliest programs offered in spatial information management systems and added it as a minor to his forest management degree at Colorado State University. Now, Dunn combines his firefighting experience and GIS knowledge to develop and implement PODs. He uses GIS to simplify complex data for fire management, transforming it into something operational and useful. Three main layers of data and analysis come together within GIS to give PODs their power. • A risk map—The Quantitative Wildfire Risk Assessment is a baseline map that shows both the potential chance of wildfire in any area and the value of anything within it. For example, areas with homes, protected wildlife, community water supplies, timber, or power lines carry higher value and therefore greater risk. • An atlas of the best places to control fires—Potential Control Locations show the probability of successful fire containment from specific areas such as such as roads, ridges, and rivers. The atlas factors in how each feature has worked or not worked to control previous blazes. • A firefighting difficulty evaluation—The Suppression Difficulty Index is a visual representation of the effort required to suppress fire across the landscape. This data prioritizes firefighter safety and represents how they operate, for example, steep slopes are more difficult and hazardous to work in than flatter areas.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA2NTE0Mw==