Landscape Fire and Resource

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Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning
Tools Project National Park Service Fifth Annual
Inventory and Monitoring Workshop San Diego,
California February 6th , 2006
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LANDFIRE Landscape Fire and Resource
Management Planning Tools Project

• Objectives
• LANDFIRE goals and objectives
• Primer on data and models
• Q A

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LANDFIRE Chartered by Wildland Fire Leadership
Council
to improve science support of

• Healthy Forests Initiative
• Healthy Forests Restoration Act
• - Community Wildfire Protection Plans
• National Fire Plan
• Consistent stewardship of public lands

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Project Objectives

• Develop a fire and fuels data base that
• is comprehensive
• is consistent
• is scientifically-based
• is repeatable
• aids collaboration and coordination across
  ownerships, federal and otherwise

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LANDFIRE Sponsors

• United States Department of Agriculture
• Unites States Department of Interior
• National Association of State Foresters
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• Western Governors Association
• Intertribal Timber Council
• National Association of Counties

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Project Leadership Partners
DOI USGS National Center EROS Sioux Falls, SD
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LANDFIRE Public and Private Partnerships

• Forest Service RD
• Forest Inventory and Analysis
• NatureServe
• Student Conservation Organization
• Science Application International Corp
• Systems for Environmental Management

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LANDFIRE Three Phases

• LANDFIRE Prototype
• -Two Map Zones Completed in 2005
• Rapid Assessment
• -Entire US Completed in 2006
• LANDFIRE National Implementation
• -Completed in 2009

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Rapid Assessment Reference Fire Regimes
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Rapid Assessment Fire Regimes Condition Class
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(No Transcript)
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LANDFIRE What It Provides

• For the entire US
• Mapped wildland fuels
• Mapped Fire Regime Condition Classes
• Mapped vegetation attributes
• Mapped biophysical settings and environmental
  attributes

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LANDFIRE What it provides cont.

• Nationally consistent fuels and vegetation data
• Data to identify areas with excessive hazardous
  fuels
• Data to improve hazardous fuels treatment
  coordination between agencies
• Data for strategic fuel treatment planning
• Data for real time fire behavior simulation
• Data for additional RD
• Fully repeatable

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E.g., Current Fuels Data 9-Mile Ranger District,
Lolo National Forest
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E.g., LANDFIRE Fuels 9-Mile Ranger District, Lolo
National Forest
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LANDFIRE Description

• Fuel fire potential layers
• Vegetation attribute layers (composition
  structure)
• Extensive field reference database
• Uses state of the art GIS
• Satellite imagery
• Environmental/Ecological GIS layers
• Uses a suite of models
• Biogeochemical simulation
• Weather summary (23 years)
• Landscape fire succession
• Ecosystem condition rating

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LANDFIRE Description Cont.

• Acquires 36 GIS data layers
• Creates 82 new data layers
• 60 modeled biophysical gradient layers
• 9 vegetation layers, and
• 13 wildland fuels layers

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Basic Methodology
Mapped Deliverables
Databases
Methods
LANDFIRE
Vegetation
Field Reference Database
GIS
Fuel
Classification
Model
Landsat 7
Remote
Sensing
Existing vegetation
Topography/
Edaphic
Fuel
Biophysical Setting
See5
Climate
Loads
(Tons/Acre)
Fuels
Landscape
Ecophysiological
modeling
Structure
Vegetation
Fire Behavior/
Effects
FRCC
Models
Fire
Regime
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LANDFIRE ProductReferenceDatabase
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Examples of National LANDFIRE Reference Database
Elements
Map Attributes Table - project information -
location information - LANDFIRE Environmental
Site Potential - LANDFIRE Biophysical Setting
- LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type -
Percentage cover of dominant and co-dominant
species - Percentage cover and height by
lifeform - Photo IDs - QA/QC information for
LANDFIRE mapping teams
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Environmental Gradients
Climate Temperature, precipitation Solar
radiation Ave. Annual ET Topography DEM, slope,
aspect Shade index
Biogeochemical NPP, LAI, PET, AET Photosynthetic
active radiation Soil Soil depth, soil
moisture Total carbon in soil
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Ecological Site Potential (ESP)What is it?
Biophysical conditions and potential vegetation
Areas with relatively homogeneous biophysical
conditions can be related to specific vegetation
communities
High temperature, low precipitation Ex xeric
shrubs
Moderate temp., moderate precip. Ex foothill
shrubs and woodland
Low temperature, high precipitation Ex conifer
forest
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Potential VegetationWhat are Maps of PV Used
For?
Purpose of potential vegetation maps
To compartmentalize (stratify) the landscape into
units to identify differences in
?Vegetation patterns ?Succession processes
?Disturbance processes

• Examples
• Maps of environmental site potential can be used
  as a predictor in creating maps of existing
  vegetation types or maps of various fuel
  characteristics.
• Maps of biophysical settings are useful for
  creating maps that characterize the departure of
  current conditions from reference conditions
  (such as FRCC).

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Potential VegetationLANDFIRE PV Classification
Systems
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Biophysical Settings
Input Variables LFRDB (Training
Sites) NPP Outflow NEE Potential
ET VPD Plan_Curve Soil depth Elevation TMax PPT Et
c.
Accuracy 64 (Khat 0.52)
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Existing Vegetation

• ?What is Existing Vegetation?
• ?What are Maps of Existing Vegetation Used For?
• ?LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Layers

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Existing VegetationWhat is it?
Existing vegetation
The vegetation community occupying the site
today Commonly characterized by
Composition and Structure
LANDFIRE existing vegetation layers
?Existing Vegetation Type ?Existing Vegetation
Cover ?Existing Vegetation Height ?Succession
Classes
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Existing VegetationWhat are Maps of EV Used For?
Purpose of existing vegetation maps
A LANDFIRE end-product
Used by land managers to characterize existing
conditions.
Maps of existing vegetation are also used
?to determine the departure of current conditions
from reference conditions ?to map fuel
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Existing VegetationLANDFIRE EV Layers EVT
Existing Vegetation Type (EVT)
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Existing Vegetation e.g.,
Ponderosa pine Lodgepole pine Timberline
pine Douglas fir Grand fir/white fir Spruce
fir Piñon juniper Juniper Riparian
hardwoods Aspen birch Mt. Big sage WY/Basin big
sage Dwarf sage Sand sage Black
brush Chaparral Other evergreen shrub Dry
deciduous shrub
Mt. Deciduous shrub Riparian deciduous
shrub Exotic riparian shrubs Salt desert
shrub Desert shrub Rabbit brush Warm season
perennial Cool season perennial Wetland
herbaceous Alpine herbaceous Annual
grasses Native forbs Exotic forbs Barren
lands Permanent snow/ice Agriculture Developed
lands Water
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9 Mapped Vegetation elements
Cover Types Percent Cover Height
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Existing VegetationLANDFIRE EV Layers EVC
Existing vegetation cover (EVC)
?The percentage of ground surface covered by
vegetation ?Measured in percent ?Max value
100 ?Directly linked to life form
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Existing VegetationLANDFIRE EV Layers EVH
Existing vegetation height (EVH)
The average height of the dominant life form
weighted by cover
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Vegetation Structure
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Existing VegetationLANDFIRE EV Layers
Succession Classes
Succession classes
?Characterize the successional status of
vegetation ?Defined through expert workshops and
refined through external peer review ?Each
biophysical setting has a unique set of
succession classes
A Early Seral, Post-replacement B Mid-seral,
Closed C Mid-seral, Open D Late-seral, Open E
Late-seral, Closed U Uncharacteristic
Standard Succession Classes
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Existing VegetationLANDFIRE EV Layers
Succession Classes
Succession classes
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LANDFIRE Vegetation Classification
SystemEcological Systems
NatureServes Ecological Systems
?Designed for mid-scale mapping of existing
vegetation ?Nationally consistent and can be
applied nationwide ?Provided a template which
could be adapted to for mapping potential
vegetation ?Links to National Vegetation
Classification System
v Meets LANDFIREs requirement for a nationally
consistent system that can be applied across the
country
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(No Transcript)
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LANDFIRE wildfire applications
Beta-Doris Fire
Western Montana 2003
Current Perimeter
Missoula
Hydro-electric Plant
Expected Fire Growth
Populated Areas
Current Perimeter
Regional scale
Landscape scale

• Inputs to models that simulate real time fire
  behavior

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Cover Types (acres burned)
Burn Severity
2003 Rampage Fire Burned Acreage
N
U.S. Highway 2
Screen shot vegetation, DNBR, FARSITE
U.S. Highway 2
Start Time 08/19/03 10/01/03  Location 15
miles Southeast of West Glacier, MT Cause of
Fire Lightning Acres Burned 24,488
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Monitoring and Updating

• - National Burn Severity Project
• WFLC Sponsored annual updating
• Remapping proposed 10 year
• Integrated FEAT (Fire Ecology Assessment Tool)
  and FIREMON (Fire Effects Monitoring and
  Inventory Protocol)

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www.landfire.gov
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Prototype Seamless Server
www.nationalmap.gov
Existing vegetation cover types
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Nationally consistent presentation and
dissemination of geospatial products
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Key Contacts

• Remote Sensing vegetation mapping
• Zhi-Liang Zhu EROS (zhu_at_usgs.gov)
• Ecological Modeling
• Matt Rollins MFSL (mrollins_at_fs.fed.us)
• Tech Transfer
• Wendel Hann (whann_at_fs.fed.us)
• General RD
• Kevin Ryan MFSL(kryan_at_fs.fed.us)
• General Business
• Henry Bastian OWFC (henry_bastian_at_ios.doi.gov)

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Additional web sites

• Fire Regime Guidebook (http//www.frcc.gov/)
• Fire Program Analysis (http//www.fpa.nifc.gov/)
• Burn Severity Mapping (http//burnseverity.cr.usgs
  .gov/fire_main.asp)

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Thank You