USGS Firelight - Vol. 2 | Issue 3
Developing a series of fire science syntheses for wildland fire managers
Federal agencies manage wildland fire in many ways, including broad-scale fire management planning and site-specific fire and fuels management actions. Federal policy requires agencies to use science in fire management planning and environmental effects analyses. However, fire managers have limited time to compile and synthesize science. The USGS is collaborating with fire management staff across the Department of the Interior to develop structured science syntheses on high priority topics that meet the needs of wildland fire managers.
Science for Wildfire Risk
This project is a collaboration among USGS scientists and Department of the Interior (DOI) bureau managers to develop actionable science (data, analysis, projections, and tools) to support DOI efforts to reduce wildfire risk, enhance wildfire resilience, implement and monitor fuel management projects and postfire restoration and rehabilitation efforts, and ensure the success of congressional investments.
IntELiMon (Interagency Ecosystem LiDAR Monitoring) Interactive Viewer
IntELiMon (Interagency Ecosystem LiDAR Monitoring) Interactive Viewer
National Fuels Treatment and Post-fire Treatment Effectiveness Assessment Strategies
Expanded Access to Real-Time Burn Severity Mapping
Decision Support Tools
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Wildland Fire Trends Tool
The Wildland Fire Trends Tool (WFTT) is a data visualization and analysis tool that calculates and displays wildfire trends and patterns for the western U.S. based on user-defined regions of interest, time periods, and ecosystem types. Users can use the tool to easily generate a variety of maps, graphs, and tabular data products that are informative for all levels of expertise.
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USGS Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment Clearinghouse
This online tool was designed to help identify which wildfire hazard and risk assessments are available across the United States. It provides information about available risk assessments and links to assessment data when publicly available.
Publication Highlights
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Structured science syntheses to inform decision making on Federal public lands
The U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered to develop a new type of science product: the structured science synthesis. Structured science syntheses are peer-reviewed reports that synthesize science information about a priority resource management issue on public lands. Structured science syntheses are developed explicitly to...
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Evaluating a simulation-based wildfire burn probability map for the conterminous US
BackgroundWildfire simulation models are used to derive maps of burn probability (BP) based on fuels, weather, topography and ignition locations, and BP maps are key components of wildfire risk assessments.AimsFew studies have compared BP maps with real-world fires to evaluate their suitability for near-future risk assessment. Here, we evaluated a BP map for the conterminous US based on...