Conduct Landscape Analysis for Wildfire Planning
Planning for wildfires may mean reducing woody fuels via brush control, thinning of dense stands of trees and prescribed fires. Pre wildfire planning can target areas in landscapes where post fire flooding and erosion can threathen fish and wildlife including threatened and endangered species such as salmon.
See Pre-Fire results in the Malheur National Forest: PPT-PDF
Also see NetMap's Wildfire Cascade Tool.
A “fire cascade” is the cascading sequence of impacts that begins with high severity fire, accelerated erosion, increased channel sedimentation and large impacts on fisheries and water quality.
Identify Areas with the Highest Fire and Erosion Potential
Use NetMap Digital Landscapes and Analysis Tools to identify individual streams and land that are most susceptible to fire related impacts.
Pre wildfire activities including fuel reduction and improving transportation infrastructure (roads, culverts) can be focused on areas in a watershed where the most extreme erosion and flooding are anticipated to occur.
A Fish Eye View of Fire Risk
Predicted fire risk based on estimating vegetative fuels, topography and climate (using a model such as Flammap), is typically in raster or grid format on hillsides (A). In NetMap, fire risk (3 = High, 2 = Moderate, and 3 = Low) can be summarized at the scale of subbasins (HUC 12 digit, 6th level, B) and it is represented in stream channels (C), via Drainage Wings, and fire risk can be aggregated downstream (D), revealing spatial patterns of fire risk at any spatial scale defined by the channel network.
Predict Post Fire Erosion
NetMap is used to couple predicted fire intensity to erosion response to identify those parts of the landscape that are likely to create the worst erosion and flooding conditions. NetMap has created a spatially explicit version of WEPP.
Predict Post Fire Landslide and Debris Flow Areas
Use NetMap's shallow landslide and debris flow tools to estimate areas at the higest risk from post fire failures.
Conduct a NetMap Road Analysis
Add a road analysis to your pre wildfire planning. See road analysis applications.
TerrainWorks (NetMap) road tools include:
- road drainage diversion
- road surface erosion
- road stability
- road-debris flows
- roads in floodplains
- habitat above roads