Demonstrating Improved Risk Assessment Approaches on Department of Defense (DoD) Landscapes
USGS economists are working to implement innovative approaches to assessing the risk of wildfire to military readiness on DoD landscapes, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. This project focuses on demonstrating the usefulness of enhanced characterization of how wildfire hazards threaten the values that are provided to DoD and its partners by the resources and assets across the Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape.
Background
A conventional approach to understanding wildfire risk recognizes that risk occurs where wildfire hazards intersect with values that matter to people. Well-established methods for conducting quantitative wildfire risk assessment (for example, A wildfire risk assessment framework for land and resource management) combine fire modeling results on the probability and the expected behavior of wildfire with spatial data on the location of values at risk and expert-informed characterization of how fire behavior would affect those values. As demonstrated by the USGS Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse, this general method is applied by many agencies and organizations for landscapes across the United States.
Objectives and Methods
Working together within the Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape, this project seeks to demonstrate enhancements to this widely applied approach that leverage best-available science on the effects of fire to resources, assets, and values and support DoD land management decisions. “The primary goal of this landscape is to build resilience through collaborative, community-driven strategies, in order to tackle issues such as water conservation, agricultural viability, wildlife habitat restoration, and military mission protection” (Fort Huachuca | Sentinel Landscapes). This combination of a complex value space, across multiple land management agencies and property owners, with recognition of shared interests in working together, provides an ideal context for demonstrating the applicability of enhanced capacity for wildfire risk assessment to accommodate a broad spectrum of values and their susceptibility to wildfire and related hazards.
This partnership will result in a demonstration of a novel risk assessment approach that assesses threats of wildfire to DoD and partner agency values that are not well represented in conventional wildfire risk assessments. The approach will consider a broad set of value types, beyond those typically represented in risk assessment applications, and it will include richer-than-typical representations of how those values are affected by the threat of wildfire over space and time. This approach will leverage available data sources: fire hazard modeling results and data layers depicting the location of highly valued resources and assets from multiple existing wildfire risk and related assessments, insights from the broad literature on fire effects, and input from relevant managers on their values, concerns, and utility of proposed innovations for their decision-making purposes.
In addition to meeting direct partner needs, this project is intended to lay the foundation for continued development of a robust framework that will be adaptable to assess wildfire risk to a variety of priority values on lands managed by DoD and other federal agencies. This effort will be documented in a publicly available journal article or report, and it is embedded within a portfolio of related projects (see Science tab).
Economics of Wildland Fire
Science for Wildfire Risk
Identifying Chains of Consequences and Interventions for Post-fire Hazards and Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems
USGS economists are working to implement innovative approaches to assessing the risk of wildfire to military readiness on DoD landscapes, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. This project focuses on demonstrating the usefulness of enhanced characterization of how wildfire hazards threaten the values that are provided to DoD and its partners by the resources and assets across the Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape.
Background
A conventional approach to understanding wildfire risk recognizes that risk occurs where wildfire hazards intersect with values that matter to people. Well-established methods for conducting quantitative wildfire risk assessment (for example, A wildfire risk assessment framework for land and resource management) combine fire modeling results on the probability and the expected behavior of wildfire with spatial data on the location of values at risk and expert-informed characterization of how fire behavior would affect those values. As demonstrated by the USGS Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse, this general method is applied by many agencies and organizations for landscapes across the United States.
Objectives and Methods
Working together within the Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape, this project seeks to demonstrate enhancements to this widely applied approach that leverage best-available science on the effects of fire to resources, assets, and values and support DoD land management decisions. “The primary goal of this landscape is to build resilience through collaborative, community-driven strategies, in order to tackle issues such as water conservation, agricultural viability, wildlife habitat restoration, and military mission protection” (Fort Huachuca | Sentinel Landscapes). This combination of a complex value space, across multiple land management agencies and property owners, with recognition of shared interests in working together, provides an ideal context for demonstrating the applicability of enhanced capacity for wildfire risk assessment to accommodate a broad spectrum of values and their susceptibility to wildfire and related hazards.
This partnership will result in a demonstration of a novel risk assessment approach that assesses threats of wildfire to DoD and partner agency values that are not well represented in conventional wildfire risk assessments. The approach will consider a broad set of value types, beyond those typically represented in risk assessment applications, and it will include richer-than-typical representations of how those values are affected by the threat of wildfire over space and time. This approach will leverage available data sources: fire hazard modeling results and data layers depicting the location of highly valued resources and assets from multiple existing wildfire risk and related assessments, insights from the broad literature on fire effects, and input from relevant managers on their values, concerns, and utility of proposed innovations for their decision-making purposes.
In addition to meeting direct partner needs, this project is intended to lay the foundation for continued development of a robust framework that will be adaptable to assess wildfire risk to a variety of priority values on lands managed by DoD and other federal agencies. This effort will be documented in a publicly available journal article or report, and it is embedded within a portfolio of related projects (see Science tab).
Economics of Wildland Fire
Science for Wildfire Risk