ISU gets NASA grant for wildfire rehabilitation


ISU gets NASA grant for wildfire rehabilitation

21 November 2012

published by www.idahostatesman.com


USA– IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Idaho State University’s mapping research center has received an $180,000 NASA grant to develop software to help federal officials rehabilitate areas burned by wildfires.

“It’ll look like Bing maps or Google maps,” said Keith Weber, the director of the Geographic Information System Training and Research Center. “Where fire managers (now) have to go out and collect this data, they’ll have all the geospatial data right at their fingertips.”

Brian Holmes, a geographical information specialist in the Bureau of Land Management’s Pocatello office, said collecting information needed to create rehabilitation plans can be challenging with the current system.

“The guys on the ground can determine some of the slopes and … what kind of terrain was burned,” Holmes told the Post Register (http://bit.ly/TcxTbJ). “If we want burn severity information, we go through the U.S. Geological Survey, and we have to get other information in other places.”

The new software will compile 25 datasets that look at slope, soil information and fire severity and intensity.

When rehabilitation plans are needed, federal officials don’t have a lot of time. The initial plan is due within seven days after a wildfire has been declared controlled. The complete plan must be submitted for approval within 21 days.

The plan must take into account if an area is wetland or used for grazing.

Holmes said the program “will help us by having all the data in a central location.”

Weber said he hopes the system will be ready in eastern Idaho by the summer of 2013. He would like to see it used across the U.S. eventually.

“This tool brings everything together,” Weber said. “(The program) will demonstrate to the user that ‘this spot over here is just as important as this spot over there.’ Without this program, you miss some spots.”
 The failure was in the forest areas.Advertisement

Following a 10-year strategy, ACT fire managers have created a mosaic across the landscape of different fuel levels, burning at every opportunity.

But forests have been too wet to burn this spring and the past two summers.

Read more:http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/red-alert-for-high-risk-of-fires-20121118-29koa.html#ixzz2CmafUgo3
 The failure was in the forest areas.Advertisement

Following a 10-year strategy, ACT fire managers have created a mosaic across the landscape of different fuel levels, burning at every opportunity.

But forests have been too wet to burn this spring and the past two summers.

Read more:http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/red-alert-for-high-risk-of-fires-20121118-29koa.html#ixzz2CmafUgo3
 The failure was in the forest areas.Advertisement

Following a 10-year strategy, ACT fire managers have created a mosaic across the landscape of different fuel levels, burning at every opportunity.

But forests have been too wet to burn this spring and the past two summers.

Read more:http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/red-alert-for-high-risk-of-fires-20121118-29koa.html#ixzz2CmafUgo3
 Two summers of unprecedented rain and unusually cool temperatures have left a large fuel load of grass and unburnt forest areas in and around Canberra.

A network of 500 fire trails and strategic burns along the north-west urban edge, heavy grazing and extra grass slashing will create a fortress for the territory which forecasters say faces a higher than average risk this summer.

After a fire-fuelled tornado in January 2003 killed four Canberrans and frightened thousands more, CSIRO fire expert Phil Cheney told the subsequent inquiry the fire’s penetration into urban areas under extreme conditions did not reflect a failure of fuel management on the urban interface.

Read more:http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/red-alert-for-high-risk-of-fires-20121118-29koa.html#ixzz2CmaXNjum
 The failure was in the forest areas.Advertisement

Following a 10-year strategy, ACT fire managers have created a mosaic across the landscape of different fuel levels, burning at every opportunity.

But forests have been too wet to burn this spring and the past two summers.

Read more:http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/red-alert-for-high-risk-of-fires-20121118-29koa.html#ixzz2CmafUgo3
 


 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
WP-Backgrounds Lite by InoPlugs Web Design and Juwelier Schönmann 1010 Wien