This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included. View MetadataAdditional Information

This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.There is a wealth of information to be found in agency and local fire reports, but even the most rudimentary interagency analyses of wildfire numbers and area burned from the authoritative systems of record have been stymied to some degree by their disunity. While necessarily incomplete in some aspects, the database presented here is intended to facilitate fairly high-resolution geospatial analysis of U.S. fire activity over the period 1992-2020, based on available information from federal, state, and local systems of record. It was originally generated to support the national, interagency Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system (http://www.forestsandrangelands.gov/FPA/index.shtml).This data publication is the sixth edition of the FPA FOD, which spans 1992-2020. The first edition spanned 1992-2011 (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009), the second edition spanned 1992-2012 (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.2), the third edition spanned 1992-2013 (https://doi.org/10.2838/RDS-2013-0009.3), the fourth edition spanned 1992-2015 (https://doi.org/10.2837/RDS-2013-0009.4), and the fifth edition spanned 1992-2018 (https://doi.org/10.2837/RDS-2013-0009.5). All editions were developed as described by Short (2014). Linkable, published large fire perimeters are available at https://www.mtbs.gov/; research-ready ICS-209 situation-reporting data are available at https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/All-hazards_dataset_mined_from_the_US_National_Incident_Management_System_1999-2020/19858927 and described at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-0403-0 (documentation update pending).

This sixth edition was published on 11/01/2022. On 11/10/2022 we changed the geodatabase projection from WGS84 to NAD83 and changed the SQLite package to SpatiaLite format. On 03/23/2023 we provided access to the sixth edition of the map service. Minor metadata updates were made on 08/09/2023.

• These data are also available as a map service: https://apps.fs.usda.gov/arcx/rest/services/EDW/EDW_FireOccurrence6thEdition_01/MapServer

Note: This is a large dataset. To download, go to ArcGIS Open Data Set and click the download button, and under additional resources select the geodatabase or shapefile option. This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2018. It is the fourth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. In addition to incorporating data for 2016-2018, some previously unavailable nonfederal wildfire records for the period 1999-2015 were acquired either directly from the state fire services (NH, NJ) or indirectly from an updated National Association of State Foresters database (AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, HI, ID, IL, OK, SD) and added. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.17 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 165 million acres burned during the 27-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included. Additional InformationThis record was taken from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory that feeds into the https://data.gov catalog. Data for this record includes the following resources: ISO-19139 metadata ArcGIS Hub Dataset ArcGIS GeoService OGC WMS CSV Shapefile GeoJSON KML Geodatabase Download Shapefile Download Research Data Archive https://apps.fs.usda.gov/arcx/rest/services/EDW/EDW_FireOccurrence5thEdition_01/MapServer/27 For complete information, please visit https://data.gov.

Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 FPA_FOD_20221014

Author: Short, Karen C. Publication Year: 2022 How to Cite: - These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citation: Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6

Abstract: - This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.

File Index: File Index for Data Publication

Included in the zip file is 'variable_descriptions.csv' that contains the following information:

| Table | Variable | Description | --- | --- | Fires |FOD_ID| Unique numeric record identifier. Fires|FPA_ID|Unique identifier that contains information necessary to track back to the original record in the source dataset. Fires|SOURCE_SYSTEM_TYPE|Type of source database or system that the record was drawn from (FED = federal, NONFED = nonfederal, or INTERAGCY = interagency). Fires|SOURCE_SYSTEM|Name of or other identifier for source database or system that the record was drawn from. See \Supplements\FPA_FOD_source_list.pdf for a list of sources and their identifier and Short (2014) for additional source information. Fires|NWCG_REPORTING_AGENCY|Active National Wildlife Coordinating Group (NWCG) Unit Identifier for the agency preparing the fire report (BIA = Bureau of Indian Affairs, BLM = Bureau of Land Management, BOR = Bureau of Reclamation, DOD = Department of Defense, DOE = Department of Energy, FS = Forest Service, FWS = Fish and Wildlife Service, IA = Interagency Organization, NPS = National Park Service, ST/C&L = State, County, or Local Organization, and TRIBE = Tribal Organization). Fires|NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_ID|Active NWCG Unit Identifier for the unit preparing the fire report. Fires|NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME|Active NWCG Unit Name for the unit preparing the fire report. Fires|SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT|Code for the agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset. Fires|SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME|Name of reporting agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset. Fires|LOCAL_FIRE_REPORT_ID|Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident report for a particular reporting unit and a particular calendar year. Fires|LOCAL_INCIDENT_ID|Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident for a particular local fire management organization within a particular calendar year. Fires|FIRE_CODE|Code used within the interagency wildland fire community to track and compile cost information for emergency fire suppression (https://www.firecode.gov/). Fires|FIRE_NAME|Name of the incident, from the fire report (primary) or ICS-209 report (secondary). Fires|ICS_209_PLUS_INCIDENT_JOIN_ID|Primary identifier needed to join into operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset. Fires|ICS_209_PLUS_COMPLEX_JOIN_ID|If part of a complex, secondary identifier potentially needed to join to operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset. Fires|MTBS_ID|Incident identifier, from the MTBS perimeter dataset. Fires|MTBS_FIRE_NAME|Name of the incident, from the MTBS perimeter dataset. Fires|COMPLEX_NAME|N...

The original point layer (WildfireOccurrence_CA_1992_2020.shp ) contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6

Wildfires are increasingly impacting social and environmental systems in the United States. The ability to mitigate the undesirable effects of wildfires increases with the understanding of the social, physical, and biological conditions that co-occurred with or caused the wildfire ignitions and contributed to the wildfire impacts. To this end, we developed the FPA FOD-Attributes dataset, which augments the sixth version of the Fire Program Analysis-Fire Occurrence Database (FPA FOD v6) with nearly 270 attributes that coincide with the date and location of each wildfire ignition in the contiguous United States (CONUS). FPA FOD v6 contains information on the location, jurisdiction, discovery time, cause, and final size of >2.2 million wildfires from 1992-2020 in CONUS. For each wildfire, we added physical (e.g., weather, climate, topography, infrastructure), biological (e.g., land cover, normalized difference vegetation index), social (e.g., population density, social vulnerability index), and administrative (e.g., national and regional preparedness level, jurisdiction) attributes. This publicly available dataset can be used to answer numerous questions about the covariates associated with human- and lightning-caused wildfires. Furthermore, the FPA FOD-Attributes dataset can support descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive wildfire analytics, including the development of machine learning models.

Fire occurrence database 4th edition represents occurrence of wildfires in the United States from 1992 to 2015. This is the third update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 1.88 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 140 million acres burned during the 24-year period. Metadata

This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the National Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.

Source: Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6

Meta-data:

FOD_ID Unique numeric record identifier.

FPA_ID Unique identifier that contains information necessary to track back to the original record in the source dataset.

SOURCE_SYSTEM_TYPE Type of source database or system that the record was drawn from (FED = federal, NONFED = nonfederal, or INTERAGCY = interagency).

SOURCE_SYSTEM Name of or other identifier for source database or system that the record was drawn from. See \Supplements\FPA_FOD_source_list.pdf for a list of sources and their identifier and Short (2014) for additional source information.

NWCG_REPORTING_AGENCY Active National Wildlife Coordinating Group (NWCG) Unit Identifier for the agency preparing the fire report (BIA = Bureau of Indian Affairs, BLM = Bureau of Land Management, BOR = Bureau of Reclamation, DOD = Department of Defense, DOE = Department of Energy, FS = Forest Service, FWS = Fish and Wildlife Service, IA = Interagency Organization, NPS = National Park Service, ST/C&L = State, County, or Local Organization, and TRIBE = Tribal Organization).

NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_ID Active NWCG Unit Identifier for the unit preparing the fire report.

NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME Active NWCG Unit Name for the unit preparing the fire report.

SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT Code for the agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset.

SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME Name of reporting agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset.

LOCAL_FIRE_REPORT_ID Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident report for a particular reporting unit and a particular calendar year.

LOCAL_INCIDENT_ID Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident for a particular local fire management organization within a particular calendar year.

FIRE_CODE Code used within the interagency wildland fire community to track and compile cost information for emergency fire suppression (https://www.firecode.gov/).

FIRE_NAME Name of the incident, from the fire report (primary) or ICS-209 report (secondary).

ICS_209_PLUS_INCIDENT_JOIN_ID Primary identifier needed to join into operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset.

ICS_209_PLUS_COMPLEX_JOIN_ID If part of a complex, secondary identifier potentially needed to join to operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset.

MTBS_ID Incident identifier, from the MTBS perimeter dataset.

MTBS_FIRE_NAME Name of the incident, from the MTBS perimeter dataset.

COMPLEX_NAME Name of the complex under which the fire was ultimately managed, when discernible.

FIRE_YEAR Calendar year in which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.

DISCOVERY_DATE Date on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.

DISCOVERY_DOY Day of year on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.

DISCOVERY_TIME Time of day that the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.

NWCG_CAUSE_CLASSIFICATION Broad classific...

This data product contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2013, generated for the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data product: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 1.73 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 126 million acres burned during the 22-year period.For more information - http://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/Product/RDS-2013-0009.3/

Context:

This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2015. It is the third update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 1.88 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 140 million acres burned during the 24-year period.

Content:

This dataset is an SQLite database that contains the following information:

• Fires: Table including wildfire data for the period of 1992-2015 compiled from US federal, state, and local reporting systems.
• FOD_ID = Global unique identifier.
• FPA_ID = Unique identifier that contains information necessary to track back to the original record in the source dataset.
• SOURCE_SYSTEM_TYPE = Type of source database or system that the record was drawn from (federal, nonfederal, or interagency).
• SOURCE_SYSTEM = Name of or other identifier for source database or system that the record was drawn from. See Table 1 in Short (2014), or \Supplements\FPA_FOD_source_list.pdf, for a list of sources and their identifier.
• NWCG_REPORTING_AGENCY = Active National Wildlife Coordinating Group (NWCG) Unit Identifier for the agency preparing the fire report (BIA = Bureau of Indian Affairs, BLM = Bureau of Land Management, BOR = Bureau of Reclamation, DOD = Department of Defense, DOE = Department of Energy, FS = Forest Service, FWS = Fish and Wildlife Service, IA = Interagency Organization, NPS = National Park Service, ST/C&L = State, County, or Local Organization, and TRIBE = Tribal Organization).
• NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_ID = Active NWCG Unit Identifier for the unit preparing the fire report.
• NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME = Active NWCG Unit Name for the unit preparing the fire report.
• SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT = Code for the agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset.
• SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME = Name of reporting agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset.
• LOCAL_FIRE_REPORT_ID = Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident report for a particular reporting unit and a particular calendar year.
• LOCAL_INCIDENT_ID = Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident for a particular local fire management organization within a particular calendar year.
• FIRE_CODE = Code used within the interagency wildland fire community to track and compile cost information for emergency fire suppression (https://www.firecode.gov/).
• FIRE_NAME = Name of the incident, from the fire report (primary) or ICS-209 report (secondary).
• ICS_209_INCIDENT_NUMBER = Incident (event) identifier, from the ICS-209 report.
• ICS_209_NAME = Name of the incident, from the ICS-209 report.
• MTBS_ID = Incident identifier, from the MTBS perimeter dataset.
• MTBS_FIRE_NAME = Name of the incident, from the MTBS perimeter dataset.
• COMPLEX_NAME = Name of the complex under which the fire was ultimately managed, when discernible.
• FIRE_YEAR = Calendar year in which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.
• DISCOVERY_DATE = Date on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.
• DISCOVERY_DOY = Day of year on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.
• DISCOVERY_TIME = Time of day that the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist.
• STAT_CAUSE_CODE = Code for the (statistical) cause of the fire.
• STAT_CAUSE_DESCR = Description of the (statistical) cause of the fire.
• CONT_DATE = Date on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (mm/dd/yyyy where mm=month, dd=day, and yyyy=year).
• CONT_DOY = Day of year on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled.
• CONT_TIME = Time of day that the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (hhmm where hh=hour, mm=minutes).
• FIRE_SIZE = Estimate of acres within the final perimeter of the fire.
• FIRE_SIZE_CLASS = Code for fire size based on the number of acres within the final fire perimeter expenditures (A=greater than 0 but less than or equal to 0.25 acres, B=0.26-9.9 acres, C=10.0-99.9 acres, D=100-299 acres, E=300 to 999 acres, F=1000 to 4999 acres, and G=5000+ acres).
• LATITUDE = Latitude (NAD83) for p...

Note: This is a large dataset. To download, go to ArcGIS Open Data Set and click the download button, and under additional resources select the geodatabase option. Fire occurrence database 4th edition represents occurrence of wildfires in the United States from 1992 to 2015. This is the third update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 1.88 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 140 million acres burned during the 24-year period. MetadataClick here for additional information and to download the data

This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.

Western US MTBS-Interagency (WUMI) wildfire dataset

Dataset: Western US MTBS-Interagency (WUMI) Wildfire database

Version: WUMI2

Authors: Caroline S. Juang, A. Park Williams

Format: TXT

Last updated: 08/01/2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sf7m0cg72

Description of the data

Our WUMI2 fire database consists of 21,693 western US fire events from 1984 through 2020. A text file (west_US_fires_1984-2020_WUMI2.txt) provides a list of each fire event, including the fire’s name, discovery date, point location, total area burned, and forested area burned (see the corresponding** readme.txt file for column labels). We also include NetCDF files of the 1-km map of forest fractional coverage (forest_type_frac.nc) and the 1-km maps of monthly burned area over 1984–2020 (burnarea_1984-2020_WUMI2.nc).** Fires included in this database are from the Monitoring Trends in Burned Severity Product (MTBS) ([Eidens...

Competition (2021 Rice Science Olympiad Data Science)

Welcome to the Data Science event for the 2021 Rice SO Invitational. Answer the following questions using ONLY the dataset provided. Each question must be supported by at least one graph that illustrates your position. Each question is worth 10 points. Points will be awarded for correctness, graph readability, and code quality so make sure the notebook you submit is precise.

1. How has the number of fires per year changed over time? Offer a justification (doesn't have to be right, just reasonable)

2. What is the seasonal distribution of wildfires? Justify.

3. How many fires lasted for more than 100 days? (Plot distribution of fire length)

4. Which month had the most lightning induced fires? Justify.

Submission

1. Start your work signing into Kaggle (register with Kaggle or with existing account) and clicking "New Notebook".

2. Answer the questions in order, using plots and markdown where appropriate to explain your logic. Make sure to also have a markdown cell that clearly answers/justifies each question. A notebook with four plots lacking explanation will not receive full marks.

3. When you are satisfied with your work, click "Save Version" in the top right corner and NAME IT WITH YOUR TEAM NUMBER AND SUBMISSION TIME (for example, Team00-4:20 PM). Make sure you select the "Save & Run All (Commit)" option to save your cell outputs (plots and tables).

4. Share the notebook with the Kaggle username "chidmuthu". The display name is Muthu Chidambaram and the profile picture is a goose.

4.5 PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR TEAM NUMBER IS SOMEWHERE IN YOUR SUBMISSION OR I CAN NOT GRADE YOUR WORK!!!!

1. All done! Your work has been submitted and will be grqaded along with the rest of your exam.

Context

This is a dataset that has been adapted from the Kaggle project https://www.kaggle.com/rtatman/188-million-us-wildfires for use in the 2021 Rice Science Olympiad Invitational Data Science event.

This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2015. It is the third update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 1.88 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 140 million acres burned during the 24-year period.

Content

FOD_ID = Global unique identifier. FIRE_YEAR = Calendar year in which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. DISCOVERY_DATE = Date on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. DISCOVERY_DOY = Day of year on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. DISCOVERY_TIME = Time of day that the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. STAT_CAUSE_CODE = Code for the (statistical) cause of the fire. STAT_CAUSE_DESCR = Description of the (statistical) cause of the fire. CONT_DATE = Date on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (mm/dd/yyyy where mm=month, dd=day, and yyyy=year). CONT_DOY = Day of year on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled. CONT_TIME = Time of day that the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (hhmm where hh=hour, mm=minutes). FIRE_SIZE = Estimate of acres within the final perimeter of the fire. FIRE_SIZE_CLASS = Code for fire size based on the number of acres within the final fire perimeter expenditures (A=greater than 0 but less than or equal to 0.25 acres, B=0.26-9.9 acres, C=10.0-99.9 acres, D=100-299 acres, E=300 to 999 acres, F=1000 to 4999 acres, and G=5000+ acres). LATITUDE = Latitude (NAD83) for point location of the fire (decimal degrees). LONGITUDE = Longitude (NAD83) for point location of the fire (decimal degrees). OWNER_CODE = Code for primary owner or entity responsible for managing the land at the point of origin of the fire at the time of the incident. OWNER_DESCR = Name of primary owner or entity responsible for managing the land at the point of origin of the fire at the time of the incident. STATE = Two-letter alphabetic code for the state in which the fire burned (or originated), based on the nominal designation in the fire report. COUNTY = County, or equivalent, in which the fire...

The wildland fire potential (WFP) map is a raster geospatial product produced by the USDA Forest Service, Fire Modeling Institute that is intended to be used in analyses of wildfire risk or hazardous fuels prioritization at large landscapes (100s of square miles) up through regional or national scales. The WFP map builds upon, and integrates, estimates of burn probability (BP) and conditional probabilities of fire intensity levels (FILs) generated for the national interagency Fire Program Analysis system (FPA) using a simulation modeling system called the Large Fire Simulator (FSim; Finney et al. 2011). The specific objective of the 2012 WFP map is to depict the relative potential for wildfire that would be difficult for suppression resources to contain, based on past fire occurrence, 2008 fuels data from LANDFIRE, and 2012 estimates of wildfire likelihood and intensity from FSim. Areas with higher WFP values, therefore, represent fuels with a higher probability of experiencing high-intensity fire with torching, crowning, and other forms of extreme fire behavior under conducive weather conditions. Using the FPA FSim products as inputs, as well as spatial data for vegetation and fuels characteristics from LANDFIRE and point locations of fire occurrence from FPA (ca. 1992 - 2010), we used a logical series of geospatial processing steps to produce an index of WFP for all of the conterminous United States at 270 meter resolution. The final WFP map is continuous integer values. We don't intend for the WFP map to take the place of any of the FSim products; rather, we hope that it provides a useful addition to the information available to managers, policy makers, and scientists interested in wildland fire risk analysis in the United States. On its own, WFP does not provide an explicit map of wildfire threat or risk, because no information on the effects of wildfire on specific values such as habitats, structures or infrastructure is incorporated in its development. However, the WFP map could be used to create value-specific risk maps when paired with spatial data depicting highly valued resources (Thompson et al. 2011). It is important to note that the WFP is also not a forecast or wildfire outlook for any particular season, as it does not include any information on current or forecasted weather or fuel moisture conditions. It is instead intended for long-term strategic planning and fuels management.This dataset is the continuous Wildland Fire Potential (WFP). It is intended for use in strategic wildland fire planning and land management planning at mostly regional to national scales.For a technical overview of the Fire Simulation (FSim) system developed by the USDA Forest Service, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory to estimate probabilistic components of wildfire risk see Finney et al. 2011. The utility of the calibrated FSim BP and FIL data for quantitative geospatial wildfire risk assessment is detailed in a companion paper by Thompson et al. 2011.

Finney, Mark A.; McHugh, Charles W.; Grenfell, Isaac C.; Riley, Karin L.; Short, Karen C. 2011. A Simulation of Probabilistic Wildfire Risk Components for the Continental United States. Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment 25:973-1000. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-011-0462-z

Thompson, Matthew P.; Calkin, David E.; Finney, Mark A.; Ager, Alan A.; Gilbertson-Day, Julie W. 2011. Integrated national-scale assessment of wildfire risk to human and ecological values. Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment 25:761-780. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-011-0461-0

Original metadata date was 11/09/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/15/2016 and 11/13/2019.

Federal wildfire managers often want to know, over large landscapes, where wildfires are likely to occur and how intense they may be. To meet this need we developed a map that we call wildfire hazard potential (WHP) – a raster geospatial product that can help to inform evaluations of wildfire risk or prioritization of fuels management needs across very large spatial scales (millions of acres). Our specific objective with the WHP map was to depict the relative potential for wildfire that would be difficult for suppression resources to contain. To create the 2018 version, we built upon spatial estimates of wildfire likelihood and intensity generated in 2016 with the Large Fire Simulation system (FSim), as well as spatial fuels and vegetation data from LANDFIRE 2012 and point locations of fire occurrence from FPA (ca. 1992 – 2013). With these datasets as inputs, we produced an index of WHP for all of the conterminous United States at 270 meter resolution. We present the final WHP map as five WHP classes of very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. On its own, WHP is not an explicit map of wildfire threat or risk, but when paired with spatial data depicting highly valued resources and assets such as structures or powerlines, it can approximate relative wildfire risk to those specific resources and assets. WHP is also not a forecast or wildfire outlook for any particular season, as it does not include any information on current or forecasted weather or fuel moisture conditions. It is instead intended for long-term strategic fuels management.This dataset is the classified wildfire hazard potential (WHP). It is intended for use in strategic wildland fuels and land management planning at mostly regional to national scales. We have classified continuous WHP values into very low, low, moderate, high, and very high WHP classes, with national wildland fire and fuels planning objectives in mind.This data publication is a second edition that was made available on 10/10/2018. Minor metadata updates were included on 11/13/2019. The first edition (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2015-0046) represents WHP mapped in 2014, depicting landscape conditions as of 2010. This second edition is the 2018 version, and depicts landscape conditions as of 2012. (See \Supplements\WHP2014_to_2018_ChangeSummary.pdf for a summary of the changes between the first and second editions of these data.)

To check for the latest version of the WHP geospatial data and map graphics, as well as documentation on the mapping process, see: https://www.firelab.org/project/wildland-fire-potential.

Details about the Wildfire Hazard Potential mapping process can be found in Dillon et al. 2015. Steps described in this paper about weighting for crown fire potential have been dropped in the 2018 version due to changes to the FSim modeling products used as the primary inputs to WHP mapping.

The FSim products used to create the 2018 version of WHP can be found here in Short et al. 2016.

Dillon, Gregory K.; Menakis, James; Fay, Frank. 2015. Wildland fire potential: A tool for assessing wildfire risk and fuels management needs. In: Keane, Robert E.; Jolly, Matt; Parsons, Russell; Riley, Karin. Proceedings of the large wildland fires conference; May 19-23, 2014; Missoula, MT. Proc. RMRS-P-73. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 60-76. https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/49429

Short, Karen C.; Finney, Mark A.; Scott, Joe H.; Gilbertson-Day, Julie W.; Grenfell, Isaac C. 2016. Spatial dataset of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the conterminous United States. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2016-0034

The datasets contain (1) aerosol-only GEOS-Chem (version 14.1.1) nested-grid simulations in North America for control (CTL), natural (NAT), and background (BKG) experiments; (2) original GFED4.1s fire emissions; (3) estimated fire emissions under natural climate scenario based on GFED4.1s framework; (4) predicted burned area under observed and natural climate scenarios from the Gaussian Process Models and observed burned area from FPA-FOD. File Description (1) Aerosol-only GEOS-Chem (version 14.1.1) nested-grid simulations in North America for control (CTL), natural (NAT), and background (BKG) experiments Filename: GC_CTL_YYYY.tar.gz, GC_NAT_YYYY.tar.gz, and GC_BKG_YYYY.tar.gz Description: The datasets contain monthly mean concentrations of aerosols, including PM2.5, total organic aerosols, and black carbon from 1997 to 2020. Simulations were performed with GEOS-Chem v14.1.1 in nested-grid of North America at 0.5x0.625 degree spatial resolution. (2) Original GFED4.1s fire emissions Filename: GFED4s_monthly.zip Description: This dataset contains original monthly mean fire emissions from GFED4.1s at 0.25 degree spatial resolution for the period 1997 to 2020. (3) Estimated fire emissions under natural climate scenario based on GFED4.1s framework Filename: GFED4s_monthly_noACC.zip Description: This dataset contains estimated monthly mean fire emissions under natural climate scenario without anthropogenic climate change at 0.25 degree spatial resolution for the period 1997 to 2020. (4) Predicted burned area data under observed and natural climate scenarios from the Gaussian Process Models and observed burned area from FPA-FOD Filename: BA_GPRpre_OBS_1992_2020 Description: This file contains annual burned area from total fires, lightning-ignited fires, and human-ignited fires in five ecoregions predicted by GPR models under observed and natural climate scenarios and observations from FPA-FOD for the period 1992 to 2020.

SDI (Rodriguez y Silva et al. 2020) factors in topography, fuels, expected fire behavior under prevailing conditions, fireline production rates in various fuel types with and without heavy equipment, and access via roads, trails, or cross-country travel. SDI is currently classified into six categories representing low through extreme difficulty. Extreme SDI zones represented in red are “watch out” situations where engagement is likely to be very challenging given the combination of potential high intensity fire behavior and difficult suppression environment (high resistance fuel types, steep terrain, and low accessibility). Low difficulty zones represented in blue indicate areas where some combination of reduced potential for dangerous fire behavior and ideal suppression environment (low resistance fuel types, mellow terrain, and high accessibility) make suppression activities easier. SDI does not account for standing snags or other overhead hazards to firefighters, so it is not a firefighter hazard map. It is only showing in relative terms where it is harder or easier to perform suppression work. SDI incorporates flame length and heat per unit area from basic FlamMap runs (Finney et al. 2019). SDI is based on fire behavior modeled using regionally appropriate percentile fuel moisture conditions and uphill winds. This product uses the wind blowing uphill option to represent a consistent worst-case scenario. Input fuels data are updated to the most recent fire year using a crosswalk for surface and canopy fuel modifications for fires and fuel treatments that occurred after the most recent LANDFIRE version. For example, LANDFIRE 2016 model inputs are modified to incorporate fires (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), Geospatial Multi- Agency Coordination (GeoMac), and Wildland Fire Interagency Geospatial Services (WFIGS) and fuel treatments (USFS Forest Activity Tracking System (FACTS) and DOI National Fire Plan Operations and Reporting System (NFPORS) hazardous fuels reduction treatments) from 2017-present. Road and trail inputs are developed from a combination of HERE 2020 Roads, USFS, and DOI road and trails databases. Hand crew and dozer fireline production rates are from FPA 2012 (Dillon et al. 2015). Classification of topography and accessibility thresholds are detailed in Rodriguez et al. (2020). Dillon, G.K.; Menakis, J.; Fay, F. (2015) Wildland Fire Potential: a tool for assessing wildfire risk and fuels management needs. In: Keane, R.E.; Jolly, M.; Parsons, R.; Riley, K., eds. Proceedings of the large wildland fires conference; May 19-23, 2014; Missoula, MT. Proc. RMRS-P-73. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 345 p.Finney, M.A.; Brittain, S.; Seli, R.C.; McHugh, C.W.; Gangi, L. (2019) FlamMap:Fire Mapping and Analysis System (Version 6.0) [Software]. Available from https://www.firelab.org/document/flammap-softwareRodriguez y Silva, F.; O'Connor, C.D.; Thompson, M.P.; Molina, J.R.; Calkin, D.E. (2020). Modeling Suppression Difficulty: Current and Future Applications. International Journal of Wildland Fire.

Fire management agreements divide land into 4 areas: * Crown Protection Area (CPA): The Crown is responsible for responding to all fires in the CPA * Municipal Protection Area (MPA): The municipality is responsible for responding in the MPA * Federal Protection Area (FPA): The federal government is responsible for responding in the FPA * Northern Fire Protection Area (NFPA): The local fire department (mostly in unorganized areas) is responsible for responding to all incidents and the suppression of fires in the NFPA