Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

1
Fire Information for Resource Management System
(FIRMS)
Diane Davies1, Chris Justice1, Jacques
Descloitres2, John Latham3 John Musinsky 4
1Department of Geography, University of
Maryland 2SSAI / NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center 3United Nations Food and Agricultural
Organization 4Conservation International
NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team
Meeting - 2008
2

• Overview of Presentation
• What is FIRMS? a very brief summary
• Whats new since last year- progress
  transitioning to an operational system-
  improvements to FIRMS- assessing the impact of
  FIRMS
• Next steps

3
FIRMS delivers MODIS hotspot/fire information
through (i) Email and text messages (Global
Fire Email Alerts) (ii) Latest hotspot/fire data
downloads (ESRI Shapefiles, Text Files)   (iii)
Subsets of MODIS images (iv) Web Mapping Services
(Web Fire Mapper, Google Earth, NASA WW, OGC
WMS) FIRMS has been developed in consultation
with PA managers around the world
4

• Overview of Presentation
• What is FIRMS a brief summary
• Whats new since last year- progress
  transitioning to an operational system-
  improvements to FIRMS- assessing the impact of
  FIRMS- improving decision support systems?
• Next steps

5

• Overview of Presentation
• What is FIRMS a brief summary
• Whats new since last year- progress
  transitioning to an operational system-
  improvements to FIRMS- assessing the impact of
  FIRMS- improving decision support systems?
• Next steps

6
Transitioning FIRMS to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization
FIRMS data has been used to quantify
demonstrate the impact of agricultural residue
burning to the Egyptian government. FAO is now
recommending conservation agricultural measures
Result - reduction of carbon emissions and
improved air quality in and around Cairo in Oct /
Nov
Southern African Peace Parks FAO using FIRMS data
combined with detailed land cover maps to make
recommendations on fire management. Overall goal
to develop avoided deforestation strategies for
improved management of carbon. Aim to use this as
a basis for selling carbon credits to benefit
transboundary conservation
7
Fire Email alerts - to users in Madagascar, as
part of the USAID program JariAla to support the
Ministry of Water and Forests Soon to expand to
the Amazon and Indonesia
8

• Overview of Presentation
• What is FIRMS a brief summary
• Whats new since last year- progress
  transitioning to an operational system-
  improvements to FIRMS- assessing the impact of
  FIRMS- improving decision support systems?
• Next steps

9
Web Fire Mapper, an interactive WebGIS for
looking at fires across the world
10
(No Transcript)
11
MODIS burned area product
12
(No Transcript)
13
Auto-updating KML file for displaying fires in
Google Earth
14

• Overview of Presentation
• What is FIRMS a brief summary
• Whats new since last year- progress
  transitioning to an operational system-
  improvements to FIRMS- assessing the impact of
  FIRMS- improving decision support systems?
• Next steps

15
Assessing the societal impacts of FIRMS using
qualitative and quantitative measures

• Qualitative
• Focus groups
• one on one interviews
• Anecdotal information from users

• Quantitative
• Web metrics
• Number of email alert subscriptions
• Papers / news articles published
• Questionnaire

16
Web Metrics
Greece Fires peak number of visitors in one day
8,168
California fires peak number of visitors in one
day 4, 097
17
Qualitative metrics key findings

• Technology can overcome obstacles caused by the
  digital divide
• Data from FIRMS levels the playing field - data
  that was once only available to experts is now
  available to a wide range of users- promoting
  transparency between departments and institutions
• Increased understanding and awareness of fires
  (reports and media)

18

• Key findings contd
• Improved allocation of resources

• Department of Ecology in Washington State for
  monitoring agricultural burning
• South Africa, Working on Fire (non-profit) to
  help decide what resources to allocate and when
• Northern Command for situational awareness
  during the recent California wildfires

Previously you had to rely on what you can see.
Youd travel for hours. Only once the line had
faulted would you realize there was a problem. .
Previously it was like finding a needle in a
haystack. I have a 1,500km line, 7 guys with 4
vehicles now how do 4 guys cover 1500km in one
day? Murphys law you have just passed an area
when a fire starts behind you Eskom field
supervisor, South Africa July 07
19

• Key findings contd
• Improved conservation management

- better understanding of fire regimes - improved
fire management - improved overview of fires for
managers - Improved communication between
managers and field staff - identification of
illegal logging
Your information gave us an insight on fires
occurring in the southern portion of the
Chiquibul National Park, this was later confirmed
by the wings of Conservation, Lighthawk. A
ground reconnaissance mission confirmed the
worst. Unknown to anyone there have been large
incursions in the park from Guatemalan farmers as
far as four kilometers inside the national
territory. More than 100 acres of forest have
been cleared for farming and the burning detected
by FIRMS showed us that more forest was being
burnt this year. This enabled us to put measures
in place to better secure the tropical forest
from destruction. Friends for Conservation and
Development, Belize, May 2007
20

• Other impacts.
• uncritical acceptance of NASA data has
  implications for misuse

Need for education and training to understand the
limitations of satellite derived products
21

• Next Steps

• Enhance Web Fire Mapper (open source version) -
  incorporate the MODIS Fire Affected Area
  product- ingest fire data from other systems-
  link to alerts directly from web page
• Enhance the FIRMS for protected areas- summary
  statistics (fire and burned area)- links to
  access moderate and high resolution imagery
• Finalize transition FIRMS to an operational
  domain (including demonstration projects at FAO)
• Continue assessing impacts - survey of all users

22
Acknowledgements
NASA Cooperative Agreement No. NNS06AA04A
Co-Investigators Chris Justice, Department of
Geography, University of Maryland, Jacques
Descloitres, SSAI / NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center John Latham, United Nations Food and
Agricultural Organization John Musinsky,
Conservation International Collaborators
Ashbindu Singh, United Nations Environmental
Program, Dan Irwin, SERVIR, John Flynn, USAID
CARPE Shriram Ilavajhala and Minnie Wong from
the Geography Department, UMD Mike McGann
UMIACS http//maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/
23

• For more information or to sign up for an email
  alert http//maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/

24
Example of a daily email alert of fires in
Southern Africa
25
Example of a cell phone alert Received in South
Africa
26
Web Fire Mapper, an interactive WebGIS for
looking at fires across the world
27
Current subscribers to the Email Alerts program