Fire Science

Wildfires shape landscapes and affect everything from water supplies to wildlife habitats. The USGS studies fire patterns and their effects using remote sensing data to map and characterize wildland fuels, monitor fire risks, model fire behavior, forecast fire danger, and assess post-fire recovery. This work tracks spatial and temporal patterns of ecosystem disturbance including wildland-urban interface areas, and integrates field data on vegetation, animal distributions, wildfire behavior, and ecohydrologic dynamics to help land managers, scientists, and the public make informed decisions about managing fire risk and protecting ecosystems and communities.