Integrating GIS into WFSA

Project details
In 2002, the National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis orked with the Ninemile Ranger District in the Lolo National Forest to add spatial data layers to the District’s WFSA decision-making models. Layers include locations of homes and structures, agency-delineated management areas, land ownership, threatened and endangered species habitat, recreational resources, and wilderness areas. NCLFA completed custom data layers and map templates that were used operationally by the District in 2002. In a continuation of the project, completed in spring 2005, NCLFA developed a customized toolbar for the District to use with ESRI’s ArcMap application. The toolbar, WFSA GIS Tools v1.0, includes tools for managing WFSA data in a personal geodatabase format, performing spatial analysis, and generating reports. NCLFA also completed a users’ guide for the toolbar and updated the data layers and map documents it developed for the Ninemile in 2002. The Ninemile Ranger District utilizes the toolbar on new wildland fires that require WFSAs.

In 2007, the ArcGIS WFSA toolbar was incorporated into the Rapid Assessment of Values At Risk (RAVAR) analysis and reporting process which is a component of the national prototype Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS).

Tools download: WFSA tools and documentation 

Principal Investigator: Don Helmbrecht
Project Staff: Lee Macholz, Craig Comstock
Project Partners: USFS Lolo National Forest’s Ninemile Ranger District