Post-Fire Hazards Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE): Support for Response, Recovery, and Mitigation
The Post-Fire Hazards Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE) project provides science to characterize climate-amplified, uncharacteristic patterns of wildfire disturbance and post-fire ecosystem recovery and enhance prediction of environmental impacts and post-fire hazards.
Fire is an essential natural process in fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems. Wildland fire (any non-structure fire that occurs in vegetation or natural fuels, including wildfires and prescribed fires) can be used to restore historical forest structure and composition, preserve old growth forests, increase landscape heterogeneity, reduce hazardous fuels and future wildfire risk, and maintain resilient ecosystems. Anthropogenic climate changes, other environmental stressors (such as invasive species), and accumulating fuels have catalyzed a rapid escalation in wildfire intensity, severity, frequency, area burned, and fire season length in many North American ecosystems. Uncharacteristic wildfires can lead to temporary or persistent changes in plant communities and their distributions, altered wildlife habitat, carbon loss, damage to cultural resources and traditional landscapes, and increased community and infrastructure hazards associated with landslides, debris flows, sedimentation of reservoirs and other water bodies, and changes in water quality and quantity.
A new USGS project, Post-Fire Hazards Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE): Support for Response, Recovery, and Mitigation, provides science to characterize climate-amplified, uncharacteristic patterns of wildfire disturbance and post-fire ecosystem recovery and enhance prediction of environmental impacts and post-fire hazards. The interdisciplinary PHIRE team includes USGS scientists from across the Mission Areas, research collaborators from universities and federal agencies, and federal, state, and tribal practitioners and stakeholders. The project focuses on landscapes and resources affected by 2021 federally declared Major Disaster wildfires in California (Dixie and Caldor Fires and KNP Complex) and Washington (Muckamuck and Cedar Creek Fires). PHIRE project components include:
- Improving Postfire Debris-Flow Hazard Assessments in the Pacific Northwest Through Application of Debris-Flow Models
- Advancing Fire Behavior Modeling for Post-Fire Hazards Assessments
- Characterizing Post-Fire Burn Severity and Vegetation Recovery at High Spatial and Temporal Resolutions Using Basal Area Measurements
- Evaluating Cultural Resource Vulnerability to Fires and Post-Fire Impacts
- Remote Sensing Characterization of Post-Fire Vegetation Recovery
- Identifying Chains of Consequences and Interventions for Post-fire Hazards and Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems
- Measuring the impact of wildfires on reservoir sedimentation rates and concentration of metals in sediments
- Incorporating Impacts of Wildfire and Vegetation Recovery into a Watershed Model of the Feather River Basin
- Assessing impacts of wildfire on water and habitat quality in downstream aquatic ecosystems using remote sensing
Integrated, these components define linkages between the pre-fire, during-fire, and post-fire environments that allow for improved prediction of fire behavior and fire impacts, guide mitigation and risk reduction strategies, and enhance recovery efforts in wildfire affected communities and landscapes.
Funding for this project is provided by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) and supplemental funding acts for Federal disaster relief activities. Through this funding USGS supports recovery efforts in declared natural disaster areas, to aid recovery efforts from widespread wildfires, devastating hurricanes, prolonged volcanic eruptions, and damaging earthquakes. This enables USGS to repair and replace equipment and facilities, collect high-resolution elevation data, and conduct scientific studies and assessments to support recovery and rebuilding decisions.
The Post-Fire Hazards Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE) project provides science to characterize climate-amplified, uncharacteristic patterns of wildfire disturbance and post-fire ecosystem recovery and enhance prediction of environmental impacts and post-fire hazards.
Fire is an essential natural process in fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems. Wildland fire (any non-structure fire that occurs in vegetation or natural fuels, including wildfires and prescribed fires) can be used to restore historical forest structure and composition, preserve old growth forests, increase landscape heterogeneity, reduce hazardous fuels and future wildfire risk, and maintain resilient ecosystems. Anthropogenic climate changes, other environmental stressors (such as invasive species), and accumulating fuels have catalyzed a rapid escalation in wildfire intensity, severity, frequency, area burned, and fire season length in many North American ecosystems. Uncharacteristic wildfires can lead to temporary or persistent changes in plant communities and their distributions, altered wildlife habitat, carbon loss, damage to cultural resources and traditional landscapes, and increased community and infrastructure hazards associated with landslides, debris flows, sedimentation of reservoirs and other water bodies, and changes in water quality and quantity.
A new USGS project, Post-Fire Hazards Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE): Support for Response, Recovery, and Mitigation, provides science to characterize climate-amplified, uncharacteristic patterns of wildfire disturbance and post-fire ecosystem recovery and enhance prediction of environmental impacts and post-fire hazards. The interdisciplinary PHIRE team includes USGS scientists from across the Mission Areas, research collaborators from universities and federal agencies, and federal, state, and tribal practitioners and stakeholders. The project focuses on landscapes and resources affected by 2021 federally declared Major Disaster wildfires in California (Dixie and Caldor Fires and KNP Complex) and Washington (Muckamuck and Cedar Creek Fires). PHIRE project components include:
- Improving Postfire Debris-Flow Hazard Assessments in the Pacific Northwest Through Application of Debris-Flow Models
- Advancing Fire Behavior Modeling for Post-Fire Hazards Assessments
- Characterizing Post-Fire Burn Severity and Vegetation Recovery at High Spatial and Temporal Resolutions Using Basal Area Measurements
- Evaluating Cultural Resource Vulnerability to Fires and Post-Fire Impacts
- Remote Sensing Characterization of Post-Fire Vegetation Recovery
- Identifying Chains of Consequences and Interventions for Post-fire Hazards and Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems
- Measuring the impact of wildfires on reservoir sedimentation rates and concentration of metals in sediments
- Incorporating Impacts of Wildfire and Vegetation Recovery into a Watershed Model of the Feather River Basin
- Assessing impacts of wildfire on water and habitat quality in downstream aquatic ecosystems using remote sensing
Integrated, these components define linkages between the pre-fire, during-fire, and post-fire environments that allow for improved prediction of fire behavior and fire impacts, guide mitigation and risk reduction strategies, and enhance recovery efforts in wildfire affected communities and landscapes.
Funding for this project is provided by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) and supplemental funding acts for Federal disaster relief activities. Through this funding USGS supports recovery efforts in declared natural disaster areas, to aid recovery efforts from widespread wildfires, devastating hurricanes, prolonged volcanic eruptions, and damaging earthquakes. This enables USGS to repair and replace equipment and facilities, collect high-resolution elevation data, and conduct scientific studies and assessments to support recovery and rebuilding decisions.