LANDFIRE (LF), a shared program between the wildland fire management programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), represents the first and only complete nationally consistent collection of more than 25 geospatial layers (e.g. vegetation, fuel, disturbance, etc.), databases, and ecological models.
LANDFIRE, products can be used across all lands and multiple disciplines to support cross-boundary planning, management, and operations. In addition, LF’s detailed geospatial mapping products have become a critical component of wildfire and post-fire modeling, land management decisions, fire risk assessments, firefighter safety, and have proven useful across a wide variety of scientific disciplines and applications.
While LANDFIRE provides geo-spatial layers for strategic planning, the data can be used for other natural resource management activities. LANDFIRE meets landscape-scale assessment needs with consistent cross-boundary vegetation-and fire-related data.
Other ways LANDFIRE is used include:
- Running fire behavior models at a landscape scale
- Providing historical disturbance regimes and vegetation patterns
- Aiding in estimating ecosystem site potential.
- Exploring the impact of changing age class distributions on carbon dynamics of forests
More examples of how LANDFIRE products are produced and used can be found on the LANDFIRE website under Applications. You can also search for LANDFIRE data case studies such as fire incident management, fire incidents, fuels planning and threatened species studies in the Document Library. Additional applications can be found on the LANDFIRE Web-Hosted Applications Map (WHAM!), an online, interactive map that shares the applications, locations, and partners working with LANDFIRE data.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Eyes on Earth Episode 102 – LANDFIRE 2022 Update
Eyes on Earth Episode 56 – Modeling the Past to Plan for the Future
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we learn how scientists built a map of pre-Colonial land cover in the U.S.
Eyes on Earth Episode 51 – LANDFIRE 2019 Limited
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we learn about a new update to LANDFIRE mapping products.
Eyes on Earth Episode 48 – Satellites and the Forest Census
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we hear how the Nation’s forest census aids satellite-based mapping efforts.
Eyes on Earth Episode 30 – Remapping LANDFIRE
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we learn about LANDFIRE and a yearslong project to improve the critical nationwide data source.
Eyes on Earth Episode 24 – Wildfire Risk to Communities
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we hear about a national wildfire risk tool built using satellite-derived mapping data produced at EROS.
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Below are publications associated with this project.
LANDFIRE technical documentation
LANDFIRE data and applications
LANDFIRE 2015 Remap – Utilization of Remotely Sensed Data to Classify Existing Vegetation Type and Structure to Support Strategic Planning and Tactical Response
LANDFIRE 2010—Updates to the national dataset to support improved fire and natural resource management
A comparison of NLCD 2011 and LANDFIRE EVT 2010: Regional and national summaries.
2014-2015 Partnership accomplishments report on joint activities: National Gap Analysis Program and LANDFIRE
Automated integration of lidar into the LANDFIRE product suite
LANDFIRE 2010 - updated data to support wildfire and ecological management
The LANDFIRE Total Fuel Change Tool (ToFuΔ) user’s guide
Monitoring landscape change for LANDFIRE using multi-temporal satellite imagery and ancillary data
LANDFIRE 2001 and 2008 Refresh Geographic Area Report--Pacific Southwest
Spatial fuel data products of the LANDFIRE Project
LANDFIRE: Collaboration for National Fire Fuel Assessment
LANDFIRE Map Viewer
Map interface to view and download LANDFIRE data sets, receive alerts and notifications.
Below are news stories associated with this project.
LANDFIRE Updates Valuable Firefighting Data
A wildfire sparks an average of 60,000 times a year in the United States. Fortunately, it is not just anybody’s guess where it goes from there—whose house it might burn or which town it might decimate.
Below are partners associated with this project.
- Overview
LANDFIRE (LF), a shared program between the wildland fire management programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), represents the first and only complete nationally consistent collection of more than 25 geospatial layers (e.g. vegetation, fuel, disturbance, etc.), databases, and ecological models.
LANDFIRE, products can be used across all lands and multiple disciplines to support cross-boundary planning, management, and operations. In addition, LF’s detailed geospatial mapping products have become a critical component of wildfire and post-fire modeling, land management decisions, fire risk assessments, firefighter safety, and have proven useful across a wide variety of scientific disciplines and applications.
While LANDFIRE provides geo-spatial layers for strategic planning, the data can be used for other natural resource management activities. LANDFIRE meets landscape-scale assessment needs with consistent cross-boundary vegetation-and fire-related data.
Other ways LANDFIRE is used include:
- Running fire behavior models at a landscape scale
- Providing historical disturbance regimes and vegetation patterns
- Aiding in estimating ecosystem site potential.
- Exploring the impact of changing age class distributions on carbon dynamics of forests
More examples of how LANDFIRE products are produced and used can be found on the LANDFIRE website under Applications. You can also search for LANDFIRE data case studies such as fire incident management, fire incidents, fuels planning and threatened species studies in the Document Library. Additional applications can be found on the LANDFIRE Web-Hosted Applications Map (WHAM!), an online, interactive map that shares the applications, locations, and partners working with LANDFIRE data.
- Science
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Eyes on Earth Episode 102 – LANDFIRE 2022 Update
LANDFIRE, a trusted source for fire-related data, has started releasing key information even faster.Eyes on Earth Episode 56 – Modeling the Past to Plan for the Future
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we learn how scientists built a map of pre-Colonial land cover in the U.S.
Eyes on Earth Episode 51 – LANDFIRE 2019 Limited
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we learn about a new update to LANDFIRE mapping products.
Eyes on Earth Episode 48 – Satellites and the Forest Census
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we hear how the Nation’s forest census aids satellite-based mapping efforts.
Eyes on Earth Episode 30 – Remapping LANDFIRE
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we learn about LANDFIRE and a yearslong project to improve the critical nationwide data source.
Eyes on Earth Episode 24 – Wildfire Risk to Communities
Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. In this episode, we hear about a national wildfire risk tool built using satellite-derived mapping data produced at EROS.
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) is an interagency program whose goal is to consistently map the burn severity and extent of large fires across all lands of the United States from 1984 to present. This includes all fires 1,000 acres or greater in the western United States and 500 acres or greater in the eastern Unites States. The extent of coverage includes the continental U.S., Alaska... - Multimedia
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
LANDFIRE technical documentation
Executive SummaryLANDFIRE (LF) completed the LF 2016 Remap effort in 2021, the biggest revision of its product suite since its inception. This document serves to describe the processes that went into this effort and elucidate the methods for creating each LF product. Although the document focuses on the LF 2016 Remap effort, it also details the two updates that have been completed since that efforFilter Total Items: 13LANDFIRE data and applications
LANDFIRE is a Federal program that provides a suite of spatial datasets indicating areas of disturbance, vegetation and fuels distributions and structure, and historical conditions. The level of detail presented in LANDFIRE’s classifications of disturbance, vegetation, and fuels is unparalleled and can be used in a variety of applications, including (1) modeling wildfire risk and fire behavior, (2AuthorsInga P. La Puma, Timothy D. HattenLANDFIRE 2015 Remap – Utilization of Remotely Sensed Data to Classify Existing Vegetation Type and Structure to Support Strategic Planning and Tactical Response
The LANDFIRE Program produces national scale vegetation, fuels, fire regimes, and landscape disturbance data for the entire U.S. These data products have been used to model the potential impacts of fire on the landscape [1], the wildfire risks associated with land and resource management [2, 3], and those near population centers and accompanying Wildland Urban Interface zones [4], as well as manyAuthorsJoshua J. Picotte, Jordan Long, Birgit Peterson, Kurtis NelsonLANDFIRE 2010—Updates to the national dataset to support improved fire and natural resource management
The Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) 2010 data release provides updated and enhanced vegetation, fuel, and fire regime layers consistently across the United States. The data represent landscape conditions from approximately 2010 and are the latest release in a series of planned updates to maintain currency of LANDFIRE data products. Enhancements to the data productsAuthorsKurtis J. Nelson, Donald G. Long, Joel A. ConnotA comparison of NLCD 2011 and LANDFIRE EVT 2010: Regional and national summaries.
In order to provide the land cover user community a summary of the similarity and differences between the 2011 National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Program Existing Vegetation 2010 Data (LANDFIRE EVT), the two datasets were compared at a national (conterminous U.S.) and regional (Eastern, Midwestern, and Western) extents (Figure 1). The cAuthorsAlexa J. McKerrow, Jon Dewitz, Donald G. Long, Kurtis Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Jim Smith2014-2015 Partnership accomplishments report on joint activities: National Gap Analysis Program and LANDFIRE
The intended target audience for this document initially is management and project technical specialist and scientists involved in the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools - (LANDFIRE) program to help communicate coordination activities to all involved parties. This document is also intended to give background information in other parts of the USAuthorsAnne Davidson, Alexa J. McKerrow, Don Long, Todd EarnhardtAutomated integration of lidar into the LANDFIRE product suite
Accurate information about three-dimensional canopy structure and wildland fuel across the landscape is necessary for fire behaviour modelling system predictions. Remotely sensed data are invaluable for assessing these canopy characteristics over large areas; lidar data, in particular, are uniquely suited for quantifying three-dimensional canopy structure. Although lidar data are increasingly avaiAuthorsBirgit Peterson, Kurtis Nelson, Carl Seielstad, Jason M. Stoker, W. Matt Jolly, Russell ParsonsLANDFIRE 2010 - updated data to support wildfire and ecological management
Wildfire is a global phenomenon that affects human populations and ecosystems. Wildfire effects occur at local to global scales impacting many people in different ways (Figure 1). Ecological concerns due to land use, fragmentation, and climate change impact natural resource use, allocation, and conservation. Access to consistent and current environmental data is a constant challenge, yet necessaryAuthorsKurtis J. Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Birgit E. Peterson, Joshua J. PicotteThe LANDFIRE Total Fuel Change Tool (ToFuΔ) user’s guide
LANDFIRE fuel data were originally developed from coarse-scale existing vegetation type, existing vegetation cover, existing vegetation height, and biophysical setting layers. Fire and fuel specialists from across the country provided input to the original LANDFIRE National (LF_1.0.0) fuel layers to help calibrate fuel characteristics on a more localized scale. The LANDFIRE Total Fuel Change ToolAuthorsTobin Smail, Charley Martin, Jim NapoliMonitoring landscape change for LANDFIRE using multi-temporal satellite imagery and ancillary data
LANDFIRE is a large interagency project designed to provide nationwide spatial data for fire management applications. As part of the effort, many 2000 vintage Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus data sets were used in conjunction with a large volume of field information to generate detailed vegetation type and structure data sets for the entire United States. In order to keepAuthorsJames E. Vogelmann, Jay R. Kost, Brian Tolk, Stephen M. Howard, Karen Short, Xuexia Chen, Chengquan Huang, Kari Pabst, Matthew G. RollinsLANDFIRE 2001 and 2008 Refresh Geographic Area Report--Pacific Southwest
The LANDFIRE National project (LF_1.0.0) was successfully completed in 2009. The goal of LANDFIRE National was to generate consistent 2001 vintage 30 meter spatial data sets for all 50 states for fire and other natural resource applications. This report highlights results from the continuation of LANDFIRE as a program to update the spatial data layers through 2008. The focus of this phase of the pAuthorsHenry Bastion, Don Long, Brenda Lundberg, Jay Kost, Jeffrey A. Natharius, Heather Kreilick, Charley Martin, Tobin Smail, James Napoli, Wendel HannSpatial fuel data products of the LANDFIRE Project
The Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) Project is mapping wildland fuels, vegetation, and fire regime characteristics across the United States. The LANDFIRE project is unique because of its national scope, creating an integrated product suite at 30-m spatial resolution and complete spatial coverage of all lands within the 50 states. Here we describe development of theAuthorsM.C. Reeves, K.C. Ryan, M.G. Rollins, T.G. ThompsonLANDFIRE: Collaboration for National Fire Fuel Assessment
The implementation of national fire management policies, such as the National Fire Plan and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, requires geospatial data of vegetation types and structure, wildland fuels, fire risks, and ecosystem fire regime conditions. Presently, no such data sets are available that can meet these requirements. As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest ServiceAuthorsZhi-Liang Zhu - Web Tools
LANDFIRE Map Viewer
Map interface to view and download LANDFIRE data sets, receive alerts and notifications.
- News
Below are news stories associated with this project.
LANDFIRE Updates Valuable Firefighting Data
A wildfire sparks an average of 60,000 times a year in the United States. Fortunately, it is not just anybody’s guess where it goes from there—whose house it might burn or which town it might decimate.
Filter Total Items: 14 - Partners
Below are partners associated with this project.