Biscuit Fire, Oregon 2002Fuels and Vegetation Mapping
Development of Fuel Type and Vegetation Community Maps is essential for land management planning and analysis of strategic program alternatives. Fire Management Concepts has over 20 years experience in the development of GIS data sets for resource and wildland fire management planning. We have utilized aerial photography and advanced satellite imagery to develop vegetation and fuels type mapping projects for the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. FMC was contracted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History to develop detailed vegetation community maps of the counties "Significant Ecological Area" program, utilizing high resolution aerial photographs.
All remotely sensed vegetation communities are "field truthed" using GPS locations for varification of image analysis to the desired level of statistical confidence. All GIS data sets produced can be queried to identify total acreage figures of various fuel types and vegetation communities. Field truthing activities can include extensive site sampling procedures for inclusion of additional data parameters that can be accessed by the GIS data set, such as percent cover, major species composition, fuel load estimates and other parameters as desired.
Detailed GIS maps are essential in developing wildland urban interface strategies for both structural defense and hazard fuel reduction activities. Future deployment of advanced fire planning applications for suppression and fuels budgets (FMAP), and prevention activities (RAMS), will require detailed fuel type mapping, fire history data and maps, integrated in GIS data sets in order to provide accurate and effective outputs.
FMC has access to the latest, cost effective technologies in order to access the latest satellite images or aerial photography of your area of interest. We can also provide access to the latest technology, Digital Aerial Imaging from fixed wing platforms, providing low level, detailed imagery that can utilize various spectral bands for more accurate deliniation of fuel types or vegetation communities in a geo-referenced format.
Biscuit Fire, Oregon 2002