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Evaluating Wildfire Hazard and Risk for Fire Management Applications

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Making Transparent Environmental Management Decisions

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Abstract

At several spatial scales, fire managers need accurate and comprehensive assessments of wildfire hazard and risk. Assessments are needed to plan, prioritize, and implement management actions, which can range from pro-active prescribed burning to real-time fire suppression. They can be complex, taking many forms and using few to many variables. Past fire hazard and risk assessment projects often lacked a proper decision support platform (see “An Overview of the Ecosystem Management Decision-Support System”) on which to objectively evaluate decision costs, benefits, and trade-offs. However, decision support systems (DSS), like the Ecosystem Management Decision Support System (EMDS), now make such analysis readily within reach. Future fire management decisions will no doubt make increasing use of DSSs in decision-making. This chapter summarizes various methods of computing fire hazard and risk. Then, we present two projects that use EMDS to prioritize resources for regional and national fire management application. Finally, we discuss additional fire hazard and risk modeling research needs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    FARSITE is a Windows-based fire behavior and growth simulator used widely by USDA and US Department of Interior agencies (Finney 1998).

  2. 2.

    A nation-wide geospatial mapping project offering data layers at the landscape-scale. For more information go to http://www.landfire.gov.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, 5775 Hwy 10 West, Missoula, MT, 59807, USA

    Robert E. Keane & James P. Menakis

  2. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Wenatchee Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 1133 North Western Avenue, Wenatchee, WA, 98801, USA

    Paul F. Hessburg

  3. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Keith M. Reynolds

  4. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, 215 Melody Lane, Wenatchee, WA, 98801, USA

    James D. Dickinson

Authors
  1. Robert E. Keane
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  2. James P. Menakis
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  3. Paul F. Hessburg
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  4. Keith M. Reynolds
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  5. James D. Dickinson
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Correspondence to Robert E. Keane .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

    Keith M. Reynolds

  2. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Wenatchee, Washington, USA

    Paul F. Hessburg

  3. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Patrick S. Bourgeron

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Keane, R.E., Menakis, J.P., Hessburg, P.F., Reynolds, K.M., Dickinson, J.D. (2014). Evaluating Wildfire Hazard and Risk for Fire Management Applications. In: Reynolds, K., Hessburg, P., Bourgeron, P. (eds) Making Transparent Environmental Management Decisions. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32000-2_6

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